Winner Takes All
by sekai no yakusoku
Summary: It starts as a friendly game. So what happens when things start to get more than friendly? [RaexRob]
1. Chapter 1: the first move

**Winner Takes All**

**Chapter 1: The First Move**

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"_Then I guess I'll have to have enough hope for the both of us,"_ he had said with that lopsided grin of his that could soothe her or drive her up the wall at any given moment. At the time, it had done the former. Right now she wanted to use her well acquired power to slap it off his face with a heavy, blunt object—or a sharp one if no blunt ones were in range and sorely reveled in remembering the decisive kick she had dealt his shin back then.

She wanted to do at least as much now...

"It's your move Rae," he tried not to smirk and failed. He was sure he had her this time. Sitting across from the fairly simmering empath, the leader of the teen titans was unusually garbed today in a plain blue t-shirt and black pajama pants.

She lifted her gaze from the nearly finished game and eyed him caustically.

Apparently today was laundry day in addition to annoy-Raven-as-much-as-you-possibly-can-Day.

"Call me Rae again and you will be eating soft food for a week, if you eat at all. And if you don't stop laughing at me I'll move more than a chess piece," her voice did not rise in pitch but the threat was no less imminent. The god of hair gel—sans hair gel today oddly enough—did his best not to recoil under her simultaneously dark and detached scowl.

"Who me? I'm not laughing," he insisted knowing full well she meant for him to stop teasing her, and instead, he pulled the very picture of humble patience. Huffing quietly to herself, Raven went back to concentrating on the board in front of her. She had her leotard on today but wore, as had become habitual for her some time ago, jeans over it and no cloak—it too was in the wash. She greatly wished it was around her shoulders now though. When she got particularly agitated, the empath found slight distracting solace in twisting her fingers in it to help her deliberate over things like her next course of action.

As it was, she had to settle instead on focusing on the matter of not causing injury to dear, dear Robin who, for the record, was cockier than usual and in her opinion deserved any penance she wished to extract from his overly smug person.

If only she could think of something satisfying enough...

"Sucks to be on the other end, doesn't it?" came yet another unasked for inquiry and she wasted no time in plucking a pillow from behind her and launching it at her opponent who ducked as it went sailing over his head to land in a cushy heap behind him. While in no way approving of his comment, it didn't change the fact that what he implied was true. She was in check and there was really no way of escaping with her King alive in the next three moves and he knew it and she knew that he knew it. The other main strategist of the titans aside from Robin himself, Raven prided herself on her own, among other things. So it was with the deepest of frowns that she made what was the only feasible move.

"Go ahead. Say it before I wipe the board clean and we forget this game ever happened, boy blunder," she sighed, stretching her arms above her head in an exaggerated fashion, trying desperately not to care that she had lost.

"Checkmate," he complied and the empath cursed his smug expression. So what if she had beaten him five times before this? So what?

"Gloated enough?"

"Never get too much of a good thing," was the cheeky response. Raven cuffed him neatly and he feigned injury while she rolled her eyes at him and rested her chin on her hand, eyeing him in a calculating fashion.

"Gloating is pointless and lets your defenses weaken," she criticized.

"Gloating is what you do when you _win_," Robin countered, smirk never leaving his face.

"You're horrible," she said, every ounce of sarcasm haloing the comment as with one swooping motion she pushed all of the chess pieces to their ordained spots on the board before moving into the kitchen area. The others had gone out to the 'mall of the shopping' as Starfire so fondly referred to it, leaving the brains of the team to their own devices.

At first Raven had only ventured out—as always—to the common area because it was unusually quiet, free of the game station's excess cacophony and her other comrade's noise levels. Robin had come in not long after to find her cross-legged and so absorbed in a book that she'd forgotten her now cold tea next to her knee. He had greeted her as he often did but this seemed to startle the empath who had then proceeded to knock over her unfinished tea, splattering deep stains on the floor and soaking the table surface. Together they'd cleaned up and then, when Raven had asked what she ought to do to thank him for his chivalry, he had actually given her a solid answer. This had elicited a faintly surprised expression from his teammate. Apparently she hadn't expected him to actually take her up on her less than sincere offer.

Half-considering refusing him, Raven had foregone retreat. Robin was, of all the titans, the one she got along with the best, the one who annoyed her the least, usually. What harm could come of such an innocent request?

So agreeing, he had challenged her to a game of chess, one game of chess that had turned into two, then three, then four, and five and finally six.

She'd won one through five and, in her opinion, suffered a shameful defeat at number six. And now she stood in front of a not quite boiling kettle, restraining her foot from tapping impatiently as it wished.

"Horrible," she muttered again, more to herself than the person she was talking about.

"I'm not horrible," he drawled lazily as his voice traveled around the corner, preceding him as he walked into the kitchen, self-righteous and playful. "You," he poked her ever so slightly, "are a sore loser." She glowered.

"It's not something I am accustomed to," she replied coolly, not an admittance, but a retort. The boy superhero leapt up onto the counter, perching there with a graceful ease, not the least bit bothered by her dry tone. After all, Raven was known for her derision and sarcasm. She turned her back to him, pouring the water into a mug and letting the tea bag plop in as she concentrated with undue focus on making her herbal concoction.

"Maybe you should get used to it," he challenged lightly. Raven bristled and set the mug down with a distinctive clink. About to turn around with a catty remark, she went, if possible, even more rigid as she felt his sudden nearness, not touching, but very, very close. His breath grazed past her right cheek and she blushed in spite of herself, biting back several well used curses.

"I see no reason," she said shortly.

"Not yet," he amended for her and suddenly she felt the soft warmth of his lips on her neck as he places his hands on her shoulders, steadying her as she swayed. His mouth left her nape, coming close to her ear again as he said, "But how about a new game?" Snapping out of whatever haze she assumed had possessed her, her eyes burned holes into her leader out of confusion and fear as she unlatched herself from him, turning on her heel. To her dismay he whirled her around, grabbing her by the wrist forcefully.

"Robin, what are you doing?" she demanded, trying to keep the shaking out of her voice. He couldn't know how that had made her feel, couldn't know how much she wanted whatever he had in mind, how that same mind went numb when he let his breath waver over her. He couldn't and she couldn't let him. Unfazed by her hesitation, he moved until she was between him and the adjacent counter, not aggressively, not passively, some strange median that told her clearly he was not drunk or drugged or in any state of mind that was dangerous.

Well, that depended on her definition of 'dangerous'.

"Rae," he had slipped into the forbidden nickname yet again, "Winning isn't everything," he repeated the words she'd used on him so long ago, loosening his grip on her wrist, but not releasing it. She closed her eyes, reminding herself to do that helpful thing called breathing. This was not Robin, or she didn't think so anyway. The Boy Wonder was virtue right down to the soles of his well-enforced boots and ridiculously colored crime-fighting outfit. He was straightforward and…and...it occurred to her that she had the same Robin in mind at the age of eighteen that she had at fourteen and only just recognized the flaw in that thinking. She wasn't fourteen and he wasn't sixteen anymore. And so, trying to ignore the fact that this was probably considered by most people extremely normal an occurrence between two young adults, she geared her brain towards a relative come-back.

"It's just the only thing that matters," she decided on his response from that same time, determined to both keep her cool and get him to back down. And, for some reason she dared to look up at him through half-lidded eyes.

Mistake, mistake! Her mind felt the urge to smack her with a two-by-four as he drew closer to her and she didn't so much hear his next words as feel them from the nearness.

"Touché," he said, and kissed her before she could further protest.

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Continue? 


	2. Chapter 2: on the offense

**Okay sorry. I was just so overwhelmed in a good way that I wanted to at least for the first chapter thank everyone. I understand that this may get tedious for you, so obviously you needn't read them. I just want people to have the option to see that I read their kind words and that I appreciate them. If you trust me and don't mind either way, feel free to scroll past them, but if not, you should be in there if you reviewed before like two hours a go…mmm, yeah.**

**So, thank yous for chapter one as far as I got them:**

DivineRose2392: I really appreciate your review. It means the world to me that someone takes even a couple minutes or so to let me know they read it and sort of or more than sort of liked it. !

Cherry Jade: YOU'RE SO NICE! THANK YOU SO MUCH. Ah your comment made me so glad I posted this. I almost didn't post it at all! I'm reallyyyyyyyy glad you liked it so.

RedRover3173: YOU are awesome. Much the thank you and hope this one's to your liking as well. :smile:

teradanielle: your review helped me decide to continue it. Every affirmation to move forward helps me tons! Thank you.

Dark Shadows: Hope the e-mail sent accurately to you:bows: thank you for reviewing.

raven and robin girl: YAY FOR RAVEN AND ROBIN, whoo. I am glad you like the story as well as, clearly, the pairing. I am super afraid of flames from Robin and Starfire fans…:shudder: I don't mind the couple and I actually adore Starfire and her funny alien habits like downing mustard, but I much prefer Robin and Raven as a couple. thanks and let me know if you like this chapter too!

SilverBlueEmpath: Love your penname or alias or whatever one might call it! Super duper cool. I'm a dork. Sorry. Anyways, thanks for reviewing.

Devyn Thompson: Yep, clichés are a late obsession of mine... well, I mean, it's okay I guess as long as they're moderated...anyway, thank you for your kind review. Hope this one's enjoyable too.

evilsangle: your enthusiasm actually gave ME enthusiasm...and just so you know, I'm a lazy jerk of a video game couch potato girl in that pre-college limbo, so enthusing me to do ANYTHING is a feat. Thank you for your vote of confidence!

beth: that one word is all it takes. I thank you equally as much as the others. I think people underestimate the power of a one word response. :gives cookie: thank you.

Miss A. LaRosa: some fluff and some foreshadowing, if vague in this one. Do inform me if you'd like to see more. I like your penname.

Sugarhighnutcase: no need to sign in! ANY REVIEW (not counting flames since those scare me…eep) is welcome and much appreciated. Yours was especially nice! Thank you very much.

AinoMinako: ah yes, robin being that way at ANY age is a mite or a lot OOC, but I figure even if the comic artists never penned it in right, he's a guy and it's been made evident that he's human so I'm factoring in a combination of honest love and undeniable hormones here... anyways, I am glad you read it and thank you for your review. I hope this chapter elucidates a little on his actions, and if not, if I get to a third chapter kicks herself out of lazy-state I'll try to do better!

KhmerGurl113: again, since someone else also apologized for not signing in, I don't mind in the least! The fact that you took the time to write me some words in encouragement is incredibly helpful to me, signed in or not! thank you.

Raven42431: hehe, your review showed up twice. Tis special. THANK YOU THANK YOU--twice for two reviews…:)

Darkofthenight: all these people with cool pennames giving me reviews :sound of love: phweeeeee! Aw this maketh me happy. Thankies much. Tell me how you think of this chapter if you have time!

Sam: Yours was one of the first gung-ho responses I got to continue. Thank you so much. I truly am grateful and once again, this is a recurring theme in my thank-yous but honestly, it's these encouraging words you and the others are sending me that get me geared up to try to write another chapter.

silentxloudmouth: tis indeed the boy wonder! And now he's in a towel...okay I'm stopping there. Sorry. Bad author. Xx Anyway, thank you as well for the review. It was very kind and thoughtful.

Kayleigh: I did my best to get this chapter out, spurred on by the severely unexpected and appreciated response, though looking at it now, I kinda wanna erase it…er...I'll try and do better for the third if you guys would like to see another chapter I mean. :hits self: Back to my point: THANK YOU. Heh. -

Celestial Chaos: here tis chapter two, much in partly thanks to you----okay I promise, I shall try to not make such painstakingly bad rhymes anymore... seriously though, thank you for the review.

white Wolf Guardian: I'm a sucker for a good penname...aka: I like yours. Anyway, I adore R/R too, duh. And I am glad you do too. Hope this chapter is okay. Much appreciation for your review in chapter one!

HighFlyer09: nine is SO my favorite number. THANK YOU FOR YOUR REVIEWWWWWWWWWWW. Whoo. Encouragement gives me energy...how about that?

Raven: I shall continue as long as people continue to enjoy it. when people stop enjoying it, I shall recede into the darkness and try to turn myself into a better writer…erk…or a decent one at least! Thank you for your review. I hope you like it and I hope others like it and I am therefore not forced to recede into the darkness quite yet. :P

Caribbeanteller: thankies. You review people are so nice. Geez. :blush:

Yorick: mmm clever review. Heh. Thank you. Working on my other one right now, well as soon as I post this one.

**Thank you. I did not expect such a kind response, and such a thorough one! That really motivated me. Working on 'For nothing, for everything...for the birds' now, but I'll come back to this one if you're still interested! Thank you.**

Just so you know, I shall ask the same question as I did at the end of chapter one, at the end of chapter two. Let me know, I mean if you have time. If not, tis okay. I'll probably get around to another chapter since I'm on a severe RaexRob rampage of obsessive extents.

:runs off to work on her other robinXraven fanfiction and drink a lot of coffee:

And finally, patient friends, chapter two:

**Winner Takes All**

**Chapter Two: On the Offense**

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Eyes widening as his lips captured her own, Raven reminded herself of several things: 1) this was Robin, Robin who she knew very well their friend Starfire had a thing for; 2) surely he had to be under the influence even though she'd just previously ascertained otherwise; 3) she was RAVEN and that simply called for things to come to a halt, right away.

_Sure kiddo, that's what they all say_, at least two of her emotions laughed at her.

Instead of listening to that wonderfully logical list, the empath felt her eyes succumb to blindness as she responded instinctively to the bird boy's surprisingly aggressive action. His fingers tangled themselves in her hair and she wondered briefly when his hand had moved. The other, she was vaguely aware, rested warmly on her hip and his lips left her mouth to retrace his earlier steps down her neck. She cursed herself as she felt herself gasp as he traced a bold finger down her side. He was inviting and oddly robust about his kisses and caresses, not at all the gentle first-kiss or touch of a schoolboy that she would have expected and at that moment was half wishing it was.

A schoolboy she could slap and be done with.

But this was Robin.

_Robin..._

Why oh why do birds have to flock together? She wondered beseechingly as he brought his mouth down on her again, lifting and placing her on the counter as they explored each other.

All the warmth wasn't coming from the kettle screaming its head off on the stove.

They broke apart, reminded woefully of their need for that handy thing called oxygen, and during this catch in time, Raven stared at her leader as though he was crazy while he returned her stare thinking much the same thing, if for different reasons. She began to push him away, her hands on his chest providing a shaky distance between them and it only occurred to her maybe two whole minutes later that the distance was not increasing. She thought about jumping off the counter, feeling distinctly awkward now, but Robin had encircled her wrists with his hands, planted his feet hard on the kitchen tile and now stood before her, refusing to budge with every self-righteous inch of the Boy Wonder stubbornness he could muster.

"Raven," he started and shushed her with such an intense look that she forgot to be shocked that he was even able to shush her at all. Not many could. "I..." his voice seemed to falter as though he just now recognized that the look in her deep night colored eyes was not one of mere passion, but passion with fear mingled in its midst. Silence ensued and they just looked at each other.

Raven's gaze was the first to drop.

"Why'd you have to do it?" she almost laughed, pulling her hands away from the now confused Robin, crossing her arms protectively over herself as if both indignant and estranged.

"What?" such a simple question.

"We can't do this, Robin," Raven's eyes pleaded with him to just let it go. Make it easy.

Robin rarely did things the easy way though.

"Why not?" he challenged. "We've as much right as anyone to...to...feel," he tried to pick the right words, all the while knowing he probably wouldn't.

"It has nothing to do with what our rights are, Robin. It's about the team, and...it's about me," she admitted this last part with painful reluctance and she felt the waves of persistence from Robin subdue slightly.

"You," his pause was thick with nauseous regret, "Don't feel the same."

It wasn't a question.

And so, she didn't answer, knowing that if she did she would contradict herself and risk so much, just for the wants of two lone birds.

"I'm sorry Robin," and really, she was.

Just not the way he thought she meant.

And Raven Roth shook with the strange bitterness that seeped into her as she drew her arms closer to herself, insanely interested in the floor suddenly, if only because it meant she didn't have to look at him. She couldn't bear the eerie sadness that she was certain could not be because she was refusing him. She couldn't bear the...the look of something that would cause her to make her own move as she so desired to. She simply couldn't.

Now, Robin did indeed have that look on his face, all of those looks actually, but he wasn't the leader of the titans for nothing. He was a master analyst and even without the mind-reading skills of Raven, he had a knack for feeling out what was really going on. So he watched.

He watched her as she tugged at the pockets on her jeans and became discouragingly fascinated with the kitchen floor.

Robin watched his long time friend and teammate and he did so carefully.

Her apology had bitten him like a snake, small, sinful...sorrowful, but he hadn't been friends with Raven so long to ignore the fact that half the time one couldn't take her words for face value and that one was a whole lot better off to observe the girl rather than prod her for details she had no intention of sharing. When she started to shake he felt alarm and then confusion and then alarm yet again. She wasn't...no...she didn't...Raven never...

"I'm not crying, boy blunder. I'm cold. My cloak's in the wash," the mind-reader interrupted his thoughts, but not easily deterred from scrutiny, Robin watched more. It wasn't cold at all in the kitchen, actually the steam from the whistling kettle that both had conveniently forgotten was making it rather warm.

"Sometimes even you suck at lying," he said with a practiced ease, a practiced ease that had been known to push the buttons of a certain empath quite effectively in the past. He waited while she gathered her thoughts, resisting the urge to reach out and wipe away whatever hurt he might have inflicted upon her. Raven after all, was still Raven even through all this, and Raven liked her space. She looked at him blankly.

"Where did this come from, Robin? This isn't...this isn't you!" she finally said, hands splayed out as if calling on some all powerful someone to give her more of an answer than she expected out of the person she was asking.

"Rae, you're not stupid. You must've noticed? I mean, I've even caught you catching me uh," Robin restrained an uncharacteristic blush. In the past month or so he'd found himself taking more and more notice of the strangely charming and dark girl before him. More than a few times she had chanced a glance up while he was watching her and, thoroughly embarrassed, he'd looked very quickly away, counting on the fact that, knowing Raven, she would chalk it up to a whole lot of nothing.

"I thought it was nothing," she said in all honesty. Sometimes, Robin mused, it wouldn't hurt him to be wrong.

"It's not 'nothing' though, Rae. _This_ is not 'nothing'," he insisted fiercely and she thought he might kiss her again—wished he might kiss her again, if she was at all truthful with herself—and he did, but it was ever so gentle this time, and on her cheek. This was not the kind of kiss, however, that one might be used to getting on the cheek, not a mother's or a brother's, not even a good friend's kiss. No. His lips lingered on her skin, his breath tantalizing her in such a way that such an innocent gesture she firmly believed should not elicit.

"Robin," it was a whisper. He wondered if he could possibly, with any strange luck, be breaking her down. Her voice shook like she still continued to do, and he drew his arms around her to calm her anxious nerves, not really believing that by holding her so close he might actually be increasing them. The shaking did subside and then after what seemed like a forever and a half, Raven exhaled deeply, as though she'd been holding her breath. What for, he wasn't sure but he sensed the edges of her earlier fear creeping away like a morning fog.

Did he dare hope?

Well, the end of the world hadn't stopped this guy from hoping so it seemed unlikely that a girl, even the unapproachable and also unflappable Raven, would stop him.

Bright lad.

Two minutes later Raven rested her head against his chest, arms going to wrap around his waist and he held her closer if at all possible, and it was.

"I deserve a chance," he murmured into her hair. The words were soft but their softness did nothing to hide the fact that he was completely serious and not in the least ready to back down from his assertion.

"But," she began.

"_We_ deserve a chance," he insisted, holding her by her shoulders and pulling back far enough to stare into her eyes with such intensity, she shied away, her gaze falling to his chest. His hand cupped her chin, tilting it up so that she would look at him again with those eyes he had become so enamored with.

"This is so not you," she made one last feeble attempt to fend him off. "You sure you're not you know…" She was cut off by his laughter.

"I'm not drunk and I'm not high and I'm not anything I'm not usually," he paused and then added, "Except I'm being completely honest with you right now, Rae, without you reading my mind…but," here he ran a hand through his hair as though considering some great decision. "If you...if you want to forget this happened for a while, it's...it's okay," he put his hand up to stop her from interrupting with what appeared to be a very sarcastic remark from the look on her face, "it's okay with me, if you want to forget it happened for a while," he emphasized the temporariness with an even tone.

"How could I forget this?" it was only a whisper.

"The idea was that you hopefully wouldn't," Robin admitted, gracing her with that devil-may-care grin her liked to sport when he was being playful or mischievous. Falling back into her comfort zone with a cushy thud, Raven pushed him forcefully away, rolling her eyes at him in silent laughter.

"You _are_ horrible," she repeated her words from earlier and he shrugged.

"_You_ are beautiful," he replied calmly and Raven felt a very human blush come up on her cheeks. By the self-satisfied smirk on his face, Robin had noticed it too. Unfortunately the blush still didn't recede with the grimace she sent his way.

"No I'm not," she faltered and Robin tapped his chin as if in very deep thought, which he wasn't, but nevertheless, the pretense never hurt anyone.

Well, not that he knew of anyway.

"How about I admit I'm 'horrible'," the very look on his face suggested otherwise, but he continued smoothly, "and you admit you're beautiful."

"No."

Right then. He put his hands on his hips now, doing a fantastic mother-hen imitation and Raven bit back the laughter that threatened to rise out of her, even as her eyes danced at him.

"It's more than fair. I, a dashing superhero of most noble status admit to being horrible and you, most esteemed lady friend admit to being beautiful. It's hardly an equal trade," he frowned, melodramatic flare shooting every which way, and then some. Quirking a brow, Raven suppressed a smile at his theatrics.

"For a 'dashing superhero' you have absolutely no taste," she deadpanned.

"I'm sure I have no idea what you're talking about," Robin was clearly offended as he absently stuck his chin out slightly as people tend to when they feel the need to come off right more often.

"Red? Yellow? Green? Stop, slow, go...ringing a bell here?" she knocked on his head playfully. Robin smiled on the inside while he feigned hurt on the outside; she was getting comfortable again with him.

"You're jealous," he said, a sly expression facing the empath boldly even as she snickered uncontrollably.

"Jealous I wasn't born colorblind, yes, that must be it," her sarcasm was at full force.

"Hah. Hah," his reply was hollow and he crossed his arms this time, well into the role of upset toddler.

Raven marveled, not at any one thing in particular either. She just marveled. Not moments ago she had been on the verge of a nervous breakdown and here she was joking in jolly banter with that self-same young man who had advanced on her earlier, that self-same young man who was her leader and friend, her mind reminded her. And she realized with abruptness that she had been unintentionally mean, bordering on heartless.

Here he was, asking her to give him a chance and...out of fear, she had blown him off, overly ready to fall back into whatever preexisting relationship the two had, even if it was a good one at that. She had been too anxious to get back to square one, if only because square one was so simple, easy. Her thoughts were interrupted though by their main point of focus as she was faintly aware of Robin calling her name and a hand being waved in front of her, up and down in a worried fashion.

"Raven?" he had resorted to her full name when she didn't respond the first five times he'd called. So in a pattern, Robin was startled when her hand gently took a hold of his and slowed its frantic wave.

"I'm sorry," she said for the second time that day and he wondered why this time.

"Me too, for pushing this on you," he jumped in, not about to let her shoulder the blame on herself. It was hardly a matter of blame but he knew she wouldn't see it that way.

"So...friends?" she bit out the word. Even though she wanted what he had been brave enough to offer she felt a dark reservation about it that she couldn't explain and the inexplicable frightened her more so. She couldn't risk it.

"For now," he smiled that patient smile, not the cocky one or the overly rambunctious one, but a patient smile that said 'I'll wait'.

It almost broke her heart. She floated up off the counter and moved cautiously around him, very, very attentive to avoiding further contact with him, and turned to leave the kitchen and when his voice broke into her thoughts again, she kept retreating toward her room, even though she could hear him quite clearly anyway.

"But I'm not sorry for kissing you Rae," he called after her and this was more than the second time she had to fight back the unrelenting blush that crept over her delicate cheekbones as he added, "I suggest a rematch soon." Robin considered the consequences of what he had just started. He considered everything: the board and its pieces, the possibilities and strategies open or closed to him. As it was, he could definitely bide his time and for now, that was his game plan...not to say that a few more moves weren't on the horizon...

Robin turned and shook his head at the forgotten tea kettle. Raven forgetting her tea once was slightly normal, especially since she had been reading. Raven forgetting her tea twice was just unnatural.

He allowed himself a half smile.

The chance he'd taken was a big one; he knew. The empath would be hypersensitive to any of the faintest hints that he was on the offense, as he undeniably was. Emptying the contents of the tea kettle he reasoned to himself that he would simply have to either make it so subtle she couldn't quite pin him for it, or be so persuasive she didn't want to pin him for it.

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Door shutting behind her, Raven slid down against it.

Life, it seemed, had just gotten a lot more interesting...and a lot more complicated. Rubbing her temples, she told herself that she'd done the right thing, that nothing truly good could come of what had almost transpired out in the kitchen, that this was all in all, for the best.

Robin was right. She did suck at lying sometimes.

_Cursed bird boy_, she glowered at the wall across from her shortly and sighed, pushing herself up off the floor.

A rogue dust bunny giggled its way across her room and she frowned, dusting herself off at the sight of it. Testily, she pulled a section of her hair forward to eye it critically before scowling deeply. She had had every intention of not coming out of her room again that night, but she really, really needed a shower.

After a moment's consideration, she began a meditative mantra, cross-legged and quiet as often she was. She would wait until later, when they were all asleep.

And so she did.

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Sooner than she'd anticipated, evening arrived on the heels of twilight, bringing chariots of stars and purple clouds and, more importantly, sleep for her fellow titans. Judging by the immaculate silence she detected from pressing an ear to her door, Raven grabbed a towel and made her way leisurely to the shower, sparing the clock a glance as she did.

3:47 AM.

Nodding to herself, she continued on her trek to the bathroom. There was of course, another one, but it happened to be in an inconvenient location. One was here obviously and the other was...in Robin's room. Briefly she thanked Starfire's theoretical god of whatever it was since she didn't have a particular affinity for her own gods, for putting the other one well away from her leader's room and she reached out to turn the bathroom door knob.

Click. Raven had the odd suspicion that her heart had just dropped into her stomach.

Steam floated out of the door she was about to enter as it opened and she was staring at a rather clean, rather towel-clad Robin.

No matter that it made no sense he was here since not only did he have the only other bathroom in the tower but it wasn't close to him at all and it was now probably 3:48 or 3:49 AM. Oh no. No matter.

In fact, it wasn't even the towel that had her staring and trying very, very hard to remember how to politely avert her eyes or at the very least bolt in the other direction.

No, no.

It was his eyes that had her rendered both speechless and motionless.

Funny, somehow she'd always imagined he showered with his mask _on_.

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Oh the running end tag line: continue? 


	3. Chapter 3: another kind of game

**Thank you so much for the amazing support, everyone. I'm sorry I don't have time to thank each one of you right now, but I'll do a super duper comprehensive list next time. This is not my favorite chapter, but necessary to kick up the plot. Bear with me. It'll improve, with any luck. Review if you have time, if not, simply enjoy! (I hope.) **

_**Disclaimer of DOOM, whoosh:** don't own teen titans, sadly. Oh the raven and robin that would permeate the show if I did...sigh._

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**Winner Takes All**

**Chapter Three: Another Kind of Game**

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She'd have to yell at herself later about having imagined their leader in the shower at all, mask or no. For the moment, she was transfixed with the more immediate matter of memorizing his uncovered face with the greatest care and detail.

Those piercing eyes, his eyes, were the color of the sky on sunny days, the kind of sunny days that she, Raven, did her best to avoid being dragged out on. She found herself thinking that his eyes had a sparkle that those sunlit skies did not and that, surely, this must be why they did not annoy her so.

Robin, for his part, was equally stunned and forgot to be embarrassed by his aforementioned state of undress as he lifted a numb hand to his unmasked face, having noticed his companion's rather obvious stare.

He groaned.

Judging his options at light speed, Robin decided his best tactic to get out of this as unscathed as possible was humor but his wit died on his lips as he noticed the girl in front of him had taken an unconscious step closer to him. Her hand was outstretched and before he could even fully comprehend her actions, that same hand cradled one side of his face and he was stunned by the gentleness.

"I can't believe you don't shower with your mask on," she breathed very, very softly.

"I'd start to mold around my eyes," he explained dumbly and almost hit himself. _I'd start to mold...?_ _Get a grip, Robin_, he told himself. To his disappointment she withdrew her hand slowly, as though not certain of what she was seeing; to his relief, she barely quirked a questioning glance at his odd comment before blithely continuing on.

"Why aren't you using _your_ shower?" it was a rather pointed question, more of an accusation really.

"There's no tub," he said in such a matter-of-fact way that Raven almost missed it entirely.

"'No tub'?" she deadpanned.

"No tub," he nodded firmly. Raven almost, _almost_, laughed.

But not quite.

"For your bubble bath, I'm sure," she teased him.

"No, for my rubber duck," Robin replied easily, not missing a beat.

In the following moment of skepticism, Raven found herself taking a close enough look at her leader to be reminded of the towel that she now felt was wrapped far too carelessly around his waist. Robin, who seemed to notice her noticing him, smirked, sky colored eyes flashing in amusement. A wicked idea occurred to him and completely ignoring the voice in his head that was frantically trying to remind him of the scrupulous danger he was in whenever he pushed the buttons of a certain empath, he stretched casually. Very casually. Raven, for her part, bit her bottom lip and forced her gaze from her friend's rather impressively muscled torso and pasted on a scowl.

"So I take it you're done," she said flatly and added with an amused expression, "You and the duck."

"Maybe," he drawled indolently. Then, hard blue eyes sparkling with a blatant pairing of mischief and suggestiveness, he continued, "But Raven, you know the only bird for me is you. My rubber duck simply can't compare. Perhaps you'd like to join me next time?"

Clearly Robin didn't value is life very much, the empath surmised and glowered deeply, at which point Robin—who it might be noted did in fact value is life very much—took a precautionary step back into the bathroom.

He wasn't dense after all, just a little over confident, a little curious, and a lot reckless.

The boy wonder pondered a little frivolously whether or not being banished to a world of darkness would be a bad thing as he noted a familiar blackish energy surging at his companion bird's fingertips. Something told him it probably would be.

Fortunately for him, Raven was in a forgiving mood.

"You're done," she all but commanded and in several deft moves teleported behind him, pushed him firmly out the door and shut it with a click of the lock. This sent Robin sprawling on the ground in an undignified heap, the towel holding on valiantly. He chuckled at the closed door and rubbed his head ruefully.

Really, he should have anticipated that.

As he pulled himself up off the floor he heard the shower head spring to life as hot water jetted out and with admirable discipline steered his mind away from imagining the sorts of things that he shouldn't really be imagining about Raven. The reflection on what said bird would do to him if she had even an inkling of an idea what his thoughts were was enough to send him walking swiftly away from the bathroom door chanting an inner mantra of: _she'll kill me, she'll kill me, she'll kill me...or banish me to a world of darkness...she'll kill me, she'll kill me, she'll kill me._

It was, all in all, quite the effective technique and Robin made it to his room without injury, much to his relief.

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Raven didn't sleep that night. The shower refreshed her to the point of a completely awakened state and so, being Raven, she chose a book from her impressive shelves of literature and reconvened with the comfortable silence of early morning in the common room. No one was up this early, even if it was a feasible thing, it being 5:34 AM at this point.

So engrossed in the book, Raven didn't notice as day's first light seeped through the huge window, giving the room that morning glow of gold and white. The story she was reading was entirely fanciful as many of her books were lately. Her fellow titans were under the impression that the resident 'creepy' member of their team was into specifically creepy things and while she did have a bit of a penchant for darkness, Raven found herself more and more often drawn to subjects no less light but a lot less dark.

If that made any sense, which she suspected it didn't really.

These books had moving castles and warriors that hid in plain sight amidst great dunes of sand and waves of sun, powerful wizards that threw excellent tantrums and most importantly, strange worlds. This was the main point of interest: other worlds. Azar and Tameran were hardly otherworldly in her opinion, foreign though they might be. No, these books, this book particularly, involved the kinds of things Raven resonated with in a childlike fashion she hadn't endorsed since the day she'd learned of the prophecy. And, as that was at a very young age, revisiting these feelings of kinship with novels that had almost fairy-tale quality about them wasn't incomprehensible.

Well, revisiting wasn't quite the word. Having known almost her entire life about what was to come—the end of the world—Raven hadn't had much of one to revisit, so maybe for the first time she was just experiencing the allowance of believing in more than what was right in front of her.

_Like Robin believed in me_, she admitted idly and then tucked that thought away between the pages of later chapters as voices reached her.

"It's my turn to make breakfast, grass stain," Cyborg's voice boomed, preceding him as he made his way to the kitchen. He nodded genially at Raven, "Morning, Rae," he said and then turned on a fast following Beast Boy. "I am _not_ gonna eat your disgusting meat substitute for two days in a row!" he bellowed and Beast Boy caved, if with some petulant muttering and glaring of his own as Cyborg went to work.

"Hey Raven," Beast Boy took seat on one of the stools at the counter and waved to the reader.

"Beast Boy," she replied shortly, though not unkindly. He was used to it and didn't take offense as he did in their earlier days.

"What a glorious morning it is!" In a voice so cheery it could be none other than the simultaneously delightful and clueless alien girl, Starfire flew into the common area, settling next to Raven, beaming. "Friend Raven, how are you this most joyous morning?"

"Fine Star," Raven privately was surprised at how conversational she was able to come off. It wasn't exactly as pleasant as the Tameranian but no one really was. In any case, it seemed to satisfy the lovely redhead as she then flew over to exchange the same morning greetings with Beast Boy and Cyborg.

"Dude, I thought you said you were making breakfast for everyone!" Beast Boy's voice rose with renewed upset.

"I am."

"I can't eat that!" the changeling insisted and the two shared distasteful glares before the vegetarian turned his back, settling for ignoring the designated chef who went back to fixing breakfast, grumbling to himself. Raven rolled her eyes. If she could cook—and she knew very well she couldn't—she would consider making breakfast every day if only to avoid this old argument. Still, some of what Starfire had said must have been true because even Raven was finding the banter amusing today. Maybe it was going to be as Starfire declared, a 'most joyous' day. Just as she considered this odd possibility, a hand reached over her to pluck her book from its safe spot beside her and she turned to see a familiar head of spiky black hair poking over the top of the book, opened to the middle. Raven suppressed a groan.

_Maybe not so joyous a day after all,_ she thought, disgruntled, and tried to snatch her beloved novel back. Evasive, as usual, the boy blunder took just a couple steps out of her reach.

"Interesting," he intoned. When she gave no response, he lowered the book to eye her quizzically. Frowning, Raven had her hand outstretched. Clearly she still expected for him to return it. So when black energy moved around and grabbed it back for her, he let out a surprised exclamation. The smug expression on the empath's face was the last thing he saw of her before she opened her book once more to continue her reading, pointedly ignoring him. "I guess now would be a bad time to ask to borrow it." At this, ageless eyes peeked at him over her shoulder.

"You read?" Robin laughed at her blunt wryness.

"More than you know," was his reply.

"You're full of surprises," she said and Robin suspected her of repressing a very, very subtle smile.

"You ain't seen nothin' yet," he grinned. The two now had the audience of the other three titans, however unbeknownst to them.

"Right. Well, yes, now is a bad time to ask to borrow it...I'm not done yet though if a certain overconfident bird would stop interrupting me I might be able to lend it to him by the end of the day." That said, she turned back to her reading without another inclination she even knew he was there, even though of course, she did.

"As the lady wishes," he continued with his lopsided smirk.

"Lucky she didn't fry you," Beast Boy observed finally—all the titans were still watching avidly—as one who was accustomed to being very nearly fried by the silent bookworm and Cyborg just nodded. It was, of course, the first time the two titans had agreed on anything all morning and for that, Raven was grateful. Further interruption was not welcome.

"Guess so," Robin admitted then turned to Cyborg, "So, what's for breakfast?" This led to more quarreling amongst the technically inclined and green titans, which led soon to Starfire imploring peace between them—an impossible thing as Raven dourly noted in the midst of the escape scene in her novel—which led to Robin scratching his head thoughtfully before getting himself his own breakfast.

He thought it safer this way, at least for him, as he chanced a glance over his shoulder at Cyborg who he suspected of beginning to spark and Beast Boy who was becoming various animals that sometimes ended up as food at odd intervals, as if to emphasize his point. Starfire flitted about beseechingly, to no avail. Raven did not stir from her seat on the couch and he went about getting coffee, which although he'd never admit it to anyone else, really did taste bad.

_But_, he thought shortly, _not as bad as tea._

A couple plastic coasters whizzed past his head, very nearly clipping his ear.

_We have coasters? _Robin thought, caught off guard for once.

"Tea is better than your caffeinated mug of mud, boy blunder and yes, we do have coasters for those who choose to use them...whatever the purpose," her tone was a blank one but her words insinuated a smile she didn't show.

"Purposes like _weaponry_?" he asked dryly as he picked both coasters up and examined them briefly before boldly tossing them, one at a time, in a leisurely fashion, at the head of one, Raven Roth. Not budging, she halted their course and settled them with equal ease back on top of the stack of them which, as Robin now noticed, sat unassumingly on the table.

"Not by you," Raven replied, her lips curving upward very, very slightly. If he hadn't been looking for it, Robin wouldn't have seen it, but a smile was there, however faint.

"Be nice," Robin chastised, eyes dancing.

"I don't do 'nice' oh fearless leader," she retorted deftly.

"Right, silly of me. A bit of T.I. is all it was," Robin assured her with an airy wave of his hand.

"T.I.?" Raven arched an eyebrow in speculation.

"Temporary insanity of course," his smile was way too self confident for Raven's taste.

"Feeling clever today, I see." Her words were a challenge.

"As always." He rose to the occasion.

They shared a look of simple but understood humor with each other before the red lights flashed and, just like any other day, they were out the tower, headed speedily toward the site of turmoil, wherever it was.

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"Titans, go!" Robin issued the standard if somewhat customized version of 'let 'em have it' and they all hurried to do so as Plasmus scoured around like a giant log of guck—that being what he was after all.

Starfire pelted him effectively with green discs of energy with the occasional shot from her eyes as Cyborg blasted him with his beam cannons. Robin busied himself getting in between Plasmus and any other energy source; Beast Boy did much the same. Raven meanwhile was doing support work, flying around and saving her teammates from being crushed into the sides of buildings or drowned in goo, among other things.

It went on like this for some time before, as usual, they began to effectively subdue the rather ugly, rather amorphous enemy and it was only then that a certain man veiled in shadow decided it was a good time to make a move.

Raven held back; the titans were doing fine for now and she felt like letting them handle it today, well, the force part. She hadn't been feeling very well midway into the fight and she guessed it was from no sleep and nothing to eat but said nothing. As such her awareness was down and when two hands settled firmly on her shoulders, she jumped back, startled.

Or she would have if she could have moved, which she couldn't. The hands had moved swiftly down to clasp her wrists in theirs, effectively halting any movement.

"Long time, no see, Raven," a familiar voice crept unwelcomingly into her ears. She cursed profusely in her head as she looked at the strangely engraved cuffs on the man's wrists. They must have cancelled out her abilities because she couldn't phase, couldn't fly, and couldn't even summon enough power to throw him back where he came from as she so desperately wished.

"What do you want?" she spat, eyes alit with a fire reminiscent of her origin.

"Leverage," the voice responded as if talking about the weather. Raven seethed and struggled to loose herself from his grip.

"Uh-uh," he chastised her and to her confusion and surprise, something that felt like an intense electrical shock ran through her body; it felt like she'd been hit against a great iron barbell on fire and in shock, she heard herself cry out.

"You just couldn't stay dead, could you?" her voice was shaky but her stubborn attitude was not. Raven fumed. She had hoped the Trigon arc was the last she'd had to deal with this man devil. Suppressing a shudder, she also had hoped that was the last time he would have a chance to get this close to her. Of all the villains they had fought, he was the only one who made her nervous, even if she didn't show it. Trigon was evil incarnate, intended to be supremely frightening and as a result, was not. This was a human though, so horrid and devoid that he killed many and was so good at it, he continued to get away, so dark that he would help the devil himself with the end of a world that was his own, just to get what he wanted.

If there was someone she hated nearly as much as her father, it would definitely have to be him.

So thinking, she kicked him squarely in the knee, hard, hoping to get him to release her. Another shockwave pulsed through her and she gasped. _Okay, not a good idea._

Her consciousness was weak and she had not noticed that her previous cry had alerted the other titans. She did not see the look of distinctive anger and worry that crossed Robin's face or the way Starfire's eyes lit green with fury or how Cyborg's cannon shifted aim...not even how Beast Boy was quietly watching.

It was too bad really. Raven would have liked to see a quiet Beast Boy.

"My dear Raven, that was the point of helping your fearless masked leader. I got my life back," it was a sinister inflection that muffled itself vexingly through the mask.

"Let her go, Slade," Robin's command was icy and hating how her stomach rebelled nauseously at her, Raven lifted her head to try and focus on him, traffic light colors and all.

"Titans, I think you would do well to remember who has the most power here. And if you need a hint," his pause was like a breath of death, "It isn't you." His hands closed more firmly, if possible, around Raven's wrists and another shock went through her. There was no cry this time; she was ready and meditating in her head, surprised only by the fact that she was still conscious at all.

"What do you want?" Starfire asked nervously, watching with large, worried eyes as Raven's limp figure collapsed further. The empath's head lolled to one side as the last thing she heard was Starfire's concern and briefly, she noted how kind that was of the Tameranian, before falling completely into darkness.

"Your attention," Slade said impassively. "And now that I have it, I think I'll let you have your other bird back. She's really not the one I'm after anyway." At that, Robin's face hardened and his glare was less than human. In response, Slade's own sneer was unmistakable through the opaqueness of the mask as even when Robin ran to pursue, the loathsome visage and the body with it just seemed to disappear.

Slade's voice echoed from nowhere any of the titans could locate:

"The game has begun again. I'll be around, titans. Your move," the laugh was hollow and seemed to reach out for whatever hope the teens had as they stood, helplessly listening as it faded to a disconcerting nothing.

Robin's masked eyes stared at the empty space for such a strange period of time, no one knew quite how long he stood there. It had been a while since Slade had been seen, so long that the others had hoped never to see him again, even while knowing better than to even hope for such a thing.

Even death hadn't stopped this man.

Inside, Robin's blood was something of an inhuman heat, white with flame and anger and the undeniable reawakening of his obsessive nature concerning the titans' most longstanding and dangerous of enemies. So rigid with cold and disgust, Robin's eyes widened as he noticed hands were shaking him by his shoulders.

"Robin, Robin, Robin...ROBIN!" Beast Boy finally bellowed, his normal voice taking on the quality of an angry lion's.

"Sorry Beast Boy, what?" Robin apologized and asked.

"Dude, get it together. We have to get Raven back, now!" Beast Boy's worry should have only touched him and admonished him for not being that way, but instead, Robin—for whatever reason—felt angrier still.

"Let's go," his words were a cold order but the titans were used to this kind of tone whenever Robin and Slade were involved, so they simply let it pass. Beast Boy went to lift the unmoving figure of Raven but Robin stilled him with a hand motion and picked her up himself.

Maybe it was pure jealousy. Maybe it was that he felt disgusting disappointment in himself for allowing his hatred of Slade to take the first place in his mind over Raven's well being.

Maybe it was _because_ Slade had already made him infuriated, as always, but his unprovoked anger settled in the direction now of anyone who came too close to the comatose empath. He didn't want anyone else near her, touching her, anything.

Robin flinched as he thought he heard a voice say, _"Your move, little Robin."_

A hand rested cautiously on his shoulder as Starfire asked timidly, "Are you alright, friend Robin?"

"Fine, Star," he bit out though his tone suggested otherwise.

And, in silence, they made their way with renowned speed to the tower, tension thick as winter ice.

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Again, I apologize for some of the forcedness of this chapter, but like I said, it's needed and also, I'm on a slight time budge lately...sigh...work and all you know.

Anyway, because it IS tradition and I've got a stupid attachment to tradition:

Continue:runs off, is late to work AHHHH:


	4. Chapter 4: white moves first

**AHHHHHHHHHH STILL NO THANK-YOU LIST! I'M SORRY!**

**(PROCEEDS TO BEAT SELF)**

**Um... (submits chapter up as a peace offering and scampers away promising to do a SUPER SUPER SUPER DUPER LONG thank you list next time...)**

**Does it help that this one's a little longer? (sheepish smile) **

**I really am grateful for the reviews! Sometimes I'm such a ninny! Oh well...work calls and after that I'll get straight to work on individual thank-yous which you ALL deserve totally. You're all the driving force behind me!**

**Thank you for the wonderful encouragement!**

**-rei**

**Disclaimer: teen titans is so not mine. DRAT.**

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**Winner Takes All**

**Chapter Four: White Moves First**

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Raven shifted uncomfortably. She remembered what had transpired. She remembered a fair amount of pain and then darkness. She knew after such an occurrence, she would need to heal. 

So why wasn't she floating and doing her unconscious regeneration thing?

She shifted again only to find that her skin rubbed against some thin, if cottony sheets that wrapped themselves firmly around her form, tucked in at the sides. The electronic sounds and constant whirring alerted that she was in the med room.

Her room rarely had any noise at all, save the movement of pages in a book or her door closing and opening.

Slowly she blinked her eyes open, glad to find a shadowed lighting; it must have been night. She felt more than saw her leader sitting next to her, head limp on his right hand that was stubbornly resting on the arm of the chair, a forced prop as if to keep him awake. It hadn't worked, but the idea was a good once, she admitted as she tugged at the sheets, pulling them down to her waist, folding them back neatly.

Raven liked neatness.

Her dark eyes surveyed the status screen. She would, of course, be fine. Electrocution wasn't terribly life threatening, but she had a feeling Slade hadn't meant it to be anyway. Dead leverage was useless leverage after all. She stretched, wincing as her back made sounds it probably shouldn't make and she grimaced at the bruises that had formed around her wrists and remembered the masked villain's vice grip.

At that thought, the idea of a shower or five appealed to her greatly.

Suppressing a groan—she didn't want to wake Robin—she swung her legs over t he side of the medical bed. Amethyst eyes looked at the ground dubiously as though she wasn't certain she could rely on her legs to hold her up and deciding not to chance it, she simply hovered ever so slightly above it. Something nagged at the back of her mind and whatever that was—she wasn't ready to face exactly what—it made her turn from her silent escape to look back at the sleeping Robin.

His face was not haggard—none of them were old enough to be haggard yet—but it was exhausted without a doubt, angry, worried, vexed beyond reason, and Raven couldn't help but frown upon that. It was in sleep that humans—and even half demons on second thought—should be able to attain something close to 'peace' of mind. Instead, the caped crusader of Jump looked worse off in sleep than he did when he was awake and battling any number of Slade bots or other such idiotic evils.

In dreams and nightmares we face our worst fears the daylight cannot contend with, Raven mused sadly. She knew a thing or two about nightmares.

Some part of her snapped at her in irritation when she reached out to brush some of his unkempt hair out of his face; it was like an unruly and uneven mop without all that gel and she realized for the second time—the first had been on his way out of the shower—why he used the hair product so generously. He didn't stir though, so with a tenderness she didn't dare show while his eyes could delve into her own, she swept a few more stray strands back before turning to leave the infirmary, phasing through the wall in unmatched silence.

Briefly she had noted on passing him that the hand that propped his chin up valiantly was gloveless, the green gauntlet on his lap and she wondered at that as she headed on a mission to the shower.

She didn't know that the sleeping leader had mirrored her kind actions several hours earlier.

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It wasn't the first time he had had a dream like this.

A nightmare.

He recognized the set-up and wondered if this was what Raven went through every time she visited the rocky plateau of Nevermore. The image of Slade appeared at his left and he found himself thinking the scarlet cloaked Raven in chains was something to be desired over the emotionless husk at his side.

"Haunted still?" That voice was a rusted knife.

"You're not real. I know I'm dreaming. Back off Slade," he replied flatly, not in the mood to deal with a man he had so recently had to deal with in real life.

"I am very real Robin, but what should concern you more than my intentions," his metal encased hands rested firmly on Robin's shoulders and the boy wonder flinched as though struck. "Is what your own intentions are going to cost you, hm?"

Robin glared into the black nothing ahead as he broke away from Slade, still not sparing him even the tiniest of glances.

"And what would that be Slade?" His brevity must have amused the arch nemesis who let go a laugh that permeated the air like a subtle poison.

"Touchy. Well, I'll only ruffle your feathers a little longer dear Robin," there was a pause and then, "Maybe I should have phrased it, 'who your own intentions are going to cost you'?" Another laugh and he seemed to vanish just as Robin turned to demand further explanation.

Who?

Slade bots surged forth and he fought with the speed and strength of ten Robins, all feisty, all angry, all blinded by a never-ending need to see the maker of those creatures breathe his last...and still they kept coming.

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And then it was over.

Robin's eyes widened from the world of sleep to the world of consciousness to see slightly tussled sheets, partially hanging off the edge of the medical bed, the empty medical bed. Shoving his nightmare away, discouraged at the empty bed and his own inability to puzzle out Slade's infuriating hints, he exited the room.

It had been his intention to be there when she woke, and he had of course. The other part of that plan had been to be awake when she did however. He sighed. When the titans had gotten back to the tower he'd made it clear with practiced tension and silence that when he took Raven to the med room and sat down, he wanted them all to leave him.

And so he had waited there, through the rest of the day and then evening and into night. Starfire had asked if he wanted lunch around mid afternoon, to which he politely said no thank you. Later on Beast Boy asked if he was interested in dinner. Again, he said no. Cyborg before he retired to rest inquired if he had any idea what time it is, to which he said he didn't really care and Cyborg, believing him completely, sighed in resignation and left him to his mental perplexities.

At first, he had let Raven float as she had in times past, knowing she could heal herself and no amount of soothing balm or salve would ease her or help her. Then she had begun to shake and after holding a hand on her forehead, he'd found her feverish. That's when he decided to tuck the sheets around her, having grabbed them from a spare closet, one underneath her as she floated and two over and around her as he gently forced her to lay flat on the bed.

He was surprised at that time that she did not protest, even in her sleep. He imagined she might have.

When her shivers receded his relief did not surprise him but his lagging worry did. Why had Slade singled her out? Maybe just because she was separate from the rest, he reasoned. That was perhaps reason enough, especially from a logical standpoint. What had he used to subdue her powers? That was a confusing one and Robin had then continued to suspect and worry that Slade may have come up with some tool for each of the titans' special abilities.

Robin himself of course, was for once exempt from such thinking since he was only human, a fact he liked to hide from.

Propping his head on his hand, he'd redirected his attention to the sleeping empath. They had been getting along well, in his humble opinion. It occurred to him briefly that Raven would have laughed at him for calling himself humble and he smiled, just a little bit. The scanner and stat machine blinked at him, telling him what he already knew: that Raven would be okay.

Still, as often is the case when someone you care about is not their usual boat of secretly smiling sarcasm, Robin felt unequaled compassion toward her. In sleep she seemed peaceful, calm...but she worked at it, he knew. In dormancy or not, her expression was practiced to be mostly the same, most of the time. From their bond he knew better.

From his own feelings, he intuited even more so.

He stood up from the chair he had dragged to her bedside hours ago, stepped as close to the bed as one could get without being on it and observed her features carefully. Sooty eyelashes laid in graceful curves on her pale skin, some stray sections of hair having fallen over the right side of her face. Her breathing was even, a good improvement over when she was first brought in when it had been shallow and almost nonexistent. He wished he could see her face clearer but that hair was in the way...

Not really thinking—he'd done enough of that for the day or so he felt—he had removed his right glove and then swept the stray strands back, tucking them gently behind her ear. Her breath didn't even hitch, so deep in her sleep of healing, and for that, Robin was glad.

Friendly and witty banter was what worked easiest for them in waking hours, but for now he could show the depth behind the teasing and the challenges. He could show a sleeping Raven what he could not yet show one that was awake and he found himself oddly grateful for the moment.

He had soon after that seated himself back in his chair, hand propping his head up to keep a stubborn vigilance that only lasted until around 2 AM before he unwillingly gave himself to a troubled sleep. He'd woken up to find her gone around 3.

The birds seemed to have a thing for early morning.

And now he made his way quietly to his research area. He had to figure Slade out before Slade had all five of them figured out. He had to be first.

The door opened with a mechanical swoosh as he stepped one foot through.

"You need sleep. Slade can wait until later. He's not going anywhere."

Raven.

"It's the fact that he isn't going anywhere that has me worried," he replied blithely. The empath rolled her eyes. _So like him...so stupid_, she thought in exasperation.

"Robin, if you're exhausted, and I know you are, so if you become even more exhausted you're not going to be able to help anyone, no matter what you find out between the hour of 4 AM and 8. Four hours isn't enough, but that's what I'm saying you need and you can't begin to tell me that you weren't about to tell me to go to sleep too so don't bother," Raven finished, voice as even as ever but it had underlying frustration laced through its seams.

"You were hurt—" he began.

"I was and now I'm not. You are a sleep deprived hypocrite and should listen to me," she plowed on shamelessly, stubbornly.

"Raven, I'm going to search for a lead no matter what you tell me. I think you know that," he paused, observing her and confirming his assessment as he saw her eyes flicker with a yes-I-know-but-I-thought-I'd-try-anyway scowl. "Just get some rest yourself." She scoffed at him.

"Move out of the way boy blunder," her hand tapped him lightly on the chest as she all but stormed past him into his researching room.

"Raven?" he was a little confused.

"I'll help you. Two's better than one and all that jazz," she threw him a knowing grin—a rarity he'd lock away under his 'good memories'—as she added, "And God knows I read ten times as fast as you." She gestured at the old clippings and files having to do with nothing but Slade and before Robin gave thought to protest, she perched-or would have perched if she wasn't really floating—above the end of the control panel, scanning through a pile of unclipped papers that alluded to Slade-involved incidents.

"You're impossible," Robin grumbled through a begrudging smile as he passed her. He had really hoped she might rest some more. Sighing, he began typing in access codes and search words into one of the other panels, the keys ingrained in his brain since he had used them so many times, and thought she was ignoring him when her voice broke into his already avid search for new information.

"Same as you, boy blunder. Same as you."

His next smile was noticeably less begrudging and they continued into the normal hours of morning in comfortable silence.

----------------------------------------------------------------

His stomach revolted.

"Hungry?" her wry voice carried through the ceiling-high stacks of articles and files.

"...no," he lied futilely. Suddenly, empty file folders whizzed toward him with unexpected speed and he ducked, scrambling to avoid the rapid fire. He waved his arms in surrender, "Okay, okay, maybe a little!" Raven floated over, careful not to knock over any of their precious new research and poked him hard in the chest.

"This is a really bad habit of yours," she scolded. "Lying doesn't become you."

"You're a bad influence," he claimed with a melodramatic flare and she scowled.

"That's gratitude for you. Come on. I want more tea and you," she eyed his stomach plainly, "Want food." He opened his mouth to protest. "Shut it and move it," she ordered and shoved him out the door towards the kitchen.

"Thanks for caring, _Rae-Rae_," he teased. At this, Raven's anger piqued just a tad. She dropped her arms from forcing him anywhere and floated in mutinous silence past him as she went to get the kettle. Robin, pleased with himself, crossed his arms as he was wont to do and meandered leisurely into the kitchen. The empath, he noted after about five minutes of searching out the makings of a sandwich and a drink for himself, was pointedly ignoring him.

He eyed her thoughtfully, vaguely suspecting it was _her_ steaming and _not_ the kettle on the stove.

"What are you staring at birdbrain?" she asked with a caustic tone only she was capable of.

"My favorite bird," he replied unabashedly. Raven fought down the color that threatened to spread across her face. While she much preferred Robin carefree and full of wit to brooding and obsessive over Slade, she dearly wished he would redirect that self-same indolent wit to someone less... she dared to say to herself, 'susceptible and volatile' to his dogged charms.

"Flatterer," she muttered as she poured the hot water into the mug. Robin watched, amused. He had, by no means, forgotten his intent to track down Slade once more and his plots and schemes, but he had also not forgotten a game he had started earlier, one of far more playful nature. As Raven focused stubbornly on lowering the teabag into the water and then stirring it blandly, she bit her lower lip in surprise as warm arms encircled her waist.

"Only because you're worthy of flattery," he said it so only she could hear, even though Cyborg and Beast Boy were so engrossed in video games they wouldn't have noticed if he used a bull horn. _Just stay calm_, she told herself.

The mug fairly exploded.

She suspected her leader of fighting back a chuckle as he grabbed a dishrag and went to help clean up the mess he had inadvertently caused. Her hand went out to motion him to not even bother.

"Let me help," he tried the soothing approach, still stooping to clean up the broken ceramics.

"I need your help like I need a hole in my head," she mumbled and grabbing each piece of breakage, from the microscopic to the palm sized, she used her power to easily transfer the shattered mug to the trashcan. Shrugging, Robin ignored her and stooped to mop up the splattered tea.

"There," the boy wonder rinsed the rag and hung it over the side of the sink, an irrepressible grin on his face. Obviously he'd made her feel _something_.

And well, something was always better than nothing right? He looked at her. She glared back.

"Hello friends! Friend Raven, I am glad to see you are sick no longer," Starfire beamed as she flew into the common area, waving to Beast Boy and Cyborg and giving Robin an air-depriving embrace.

"Star...air please?" he managed to choke out and the Tameranian was quick to release him, apologetic as always. These earthlings certainly were not built as anyone from her planet! Still, Robin had, in ways, the strength of a hundred of her people, and that was one of the things she admired most about him, thought made him best to be the leader of the titans. Her green eyes sparkled innocently at him.

"My apologies friend Robin," she offered and went to give Raven a hug, luckily a much softer hug, as though the redhead was fearful of injuring her dark friend anew.

"Morning Starfire," Raven greeted as amicably as possible, which wasn't very, but wasn't mean either.

"I see you have already had the making of the witches of sand," Starfire noted Robin's untouched sandwich.

"That's sandwiches, Star," Cyborg called over his shoulder.

"Of course!" she nodded, surely to forget by the next time, but meaning to do her best to remember anyway.

"Uh yeah, lunch you know," Robin replied. "Actually, Raven and I were about to go back to researching Slade's next possible move." Starfire, naïve by no real fault of her own, tilted her head to one side, unaware of Robin's indirect attempt to separate him and Raven from the others.

"Could I be of some assistance to you as well, Robin?" she inquired. Robin ran a hand through his hair absently.

"No, it's alright Star. Just get yourself some lunch, hang out you know? Or you all can train," he hinted none too subtly and Beast Boy ducked under a couch pillow while Cyborg tried to be inconspicuous behind a technology brochure. "Or not," Robin relented and Beast Boy dared to peak out from under the couch.

"You are quite certain?" Starfire was not certain, herself. She wondered, confused, why Robin only desired the help of friend Raven but when he turned her away—not unkindly, but definitely—as second time, she nodded and went to get the mustard out for her lunch, whatever it might be, puzzling over his behavior. She offered help to all her friends of course, but especially for Robin who she cared about with a deep affection. Something told her there was a word for it here on earth, but she could not think of it. What she did know was that Robin, for the moment preferred spending time with the quiet empath and for some reason, this gave the Tameranian girl an unpleasant twisting sensation in her chest.

But if that was what Robin wanted, that was it for now and for the moment, Starfire could be distracted with such everyday things as lunch with too much mustard—no such thing to her of course—and placating words.

For now.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Back in the researching room, Robin took a bite out of his sandwich. Raven sat next to him silently for a couple minutes and then sighed.

"She likes you, you know," Raven told him.

"I know," he affirmed shortly.

"So...why don't you say something to her?" Raven wasn't very good at talking about these kinds of things, tried often to stay as far away from the word 'relationship' as possible, but the loving waves emanating from Starfire were so intense she felt it would be distinctly wrong to not say anything.

"You know," he said.

"Such a wordsmith," she noted with dark sarcasm. Did she have to wring a reaction or action out of him by force? Robin pushed his plate aside.

"I know you remember the chess game and I know you remember that I kissed you, so what makes you think anything has changed Raven?" he asked, not quiet, but not loud.

"I just..." she trailed off. She had no idea what to say, for once.

"Star is my friend. I love her just like that, and only like that. I'd think I'd made my own affections rather clear," his voice was definitely quieter now as he brushed some of her hair out of her face, behind her ear, much as he had done while she slept. Raven flinched on impulse but also felt heat rise to her face and thanked the room's inherent dimness for covering her blush.

"Starfire is much better for you," she finally said.

It even sounded lame to her and a pink Raven was beating its head on something blunt and painful as the words escaped normal Raven's mouth. How stubborn!

"No, she's not," he disqualified her judgment soundly. "She could not take what is dark in me very well and I, for one, would not want to put that on her because she would never be able to understand, not like you." He paused here, hand caressing her cheek in a bold gesture that, surprisingly, did not result in a power shortage of any kind (yet) but a slight intake of breath on the Raven's part.

"She may not understand," she still fought his logic, "But she has the light to heal what darkness there might be in you, Robin. I don't." Her tone was distractingly bitter and not for the first time, Robin was seeing all of her, all of Raven—how she loathed the weakness of herself, how she was angered by it and by her inability to do what others might.

"I'm not asking for light, Raven. Contrary to what you might think, I'm not _that_ stupid," he joked with seriousness, a strange combination to be sure.

"No, you're just stupid enough to come looking in the dark," she whispered, gaze falling from his masked one. She missed his eyes and, unable to see them, she closed her own. His fingers traced the curve of her face, brushing her closed eyelids softly, lingering on her lips.

"I don't think that's stupid at all where you're concerned," he said to her closed eyes and tilted her blind face up to him to capture her lips. Raven's mind blurred. On normal accounts, the surrounding shadows would have made her feel safer, but at the moment, it made her feel more vulnerable. No one could see in here, and no one else was there, just the two birds, just her and him and the obscurity was a cover over their bodies as they radiated heat with their nearness.

"Is this your rematch?" she asked, between kisses, vaguely recalling his challenge issued after that engagement in the kitchen. His lips traced her chin with a skill she could not ignore and his hands stimulated sensations in her that made her breathing uneven.

"White moves first," he reminded her and she recalled he always chose the white pieces when they played chess as he left butterfly kisses, starting from her mouth and continuing on down her neck. "I did warn you," he added as he suckled gently at the juncture of her neck and collarbone, and heard her gasp.

She wondered when he had taken the moment to so expertly pull the neck of her leotard far enough to do such a thing.

"It wasn't a fair warning," she accused, trying to regain control over the situation as his ministrations made her pulse hammer and her treacherous body respond in primal ways.

"_All _is fair in—" he was cut off was she pulled him up from his journey down her neck and pressed two fingers to his lips.

"Don't say it," she pleaded. Now, Raven didn't plead, to anyone and it scared him to see that side of her, but at the same time drove Robin on to want to see all of her faces, her feelings and thoughts. He concurred with her request but did not stop his assault on her senses. Raven was only barely aware as he let his fingers trail down her sides expertly, sweeping along just the right curves to the point where when she let slip a moan, she didn't have the attention to spare to be horrified at herself for letting this get so far.

Another kiss and Raven was swearing inside, but only a tiny part of her. When the Hell had he had the time to get this good at...this? They dueled for supremacy now, lips pressed hard against each other as they knocked over a couple piles of their painstakingly organized research. Propped haphazardly against one of those piles, Raven felt it collapse underneath her as their engagement became more heated, Robin's frame settling over hers. Reaching up, she removed his mask and he did not try and stop her, even for a second.

He trusted her.

_Blue eyes with fire in them should be illegal_, she decided, the remains of her resolve disappearing beneath them.

"We're losing hours of work," she groaned and knew she could not continue to protest when it became clear soon after that Robin, the obsessive and Slade-hating Robin, was quite simply beyond caring about such things, occupied entirely with her. Her hands raked through his hair and over his muscled torso, trying to get some sway, some charge over her wildly spiraling emotions by getting power over him to little avail. So when his hand boldly brushed over her chest, it wasn't just her body responding as she gasped at the sensation, but the electricity responded too.

The tower's electricity.

The panel blinked in a straining whir, and then the screen, and then came pitch blackness. Robin halted in his rematch as Raven tried to pull herself together, wondering if by any luck it has just been this room that shorted.

There still seemed to be light filtering in through the crack underneath the door...

Maybe she was lucky after all...

Reassessing her situation, she slapped herself mentally; on second thought, no.

She was not lucky at all, because here she was, less than inches apart from her opponent in a game she had the distinct feeling she was losing; the flush she could still feel on her face and neck was a dead giveaway, even in the complete darkness of the room. Here she was, emotions and attractions absolutely unbridled and intensely considering how little she really wanted to distance herself from her leader whose heated breath she could still feel occasionally brushing across her nape.

Here she was. And here he was.

Here they were...very alone in a false cloak of night that seemed to incite actions the daylight might not stand for. Here they were, his body against hers, their hands somehow intertwined, fingers interlaced.

And neither dared to move, dared to breathe too loud or speak, for what seemed like years spent in the dark.

* * *

**more? no more? what say you, glorious readers?**

**sorry if that seemed to cut off...i worried the chapter might be too long or too dense or something...arghhhhh**

**anyways, yes, what say you? **


	5. Chapter 5: a little friendly competition

**Alright, the last time I did a whole list of singular Thank Yous was chapter 2. So here are all the ones from thereon. I hope I didn't miss anyone and gravely apologize if I do. I am flattered beyond words by your support. No one has ever liked my writing before, so writing this story and my other one have given me new courage to keep writing! Thank you all and now, long list. Skip if you wish, read if you wish, whatever you wish!**

**Thank yous:**

greygin: raven and robin have a solidarity on the team that has always sparked my personal attentions. I'm glad you like them too. Thanks for the kind review.

Arisu Arisugawa: Nah I don't want readers to have to freak out, hehe. I do enough of that on my very own. This isn't 'meant' to be a drama, not like my other one so I'm doing my very conscious best to steer it more toward event-driven, pinning most emotional upheaval to be RobinxRaven centric, for the most part. The other story is not dark but darker than this one, hence the drama edge. I'm aiming more for wit and flair here though. Hope it comes through, even with the twists and whatnot and hope you still like! Very much the thank you for your reviews!

Dark Shadows: hope you got the e-mail! Rematches make the world go round...muahaha...glad you're still enjoying the story!

Meiandu: Thank you. I'm trying hard, even though I am not as focused with the story on the others to keep them acting as they might if placed in such situations, of course every person's take on the various titans is a little different so their takes on what is 'in character' might vary as well, but for the most part I think of Cyborg as the big brother, Beast Boy as the 'class clown' but also 'nice guy' in a way, Starfire as the kind foreigner who will go to extremes to understand what is around her but is greatly upset when she does not understand, Robin as the headstrong leader who does whatever the hell he wants when you get down to it—note his obsessive nature, tendencies, et cetera in the show—and Raven not so much as a goth outcast or loner as someone who understands and therefore appreciates comfortable silence and her personal space, with a stubborn and willful edge of course. Thank you for your reviews!

Sage Raven: As always, thank you! And if you don't know already, hehe, I ADORE your writing. You're an inspiration.

Monito: okie so this one isn't QUITE as romantic, this chapter, but I have some moments in my head I'd like to write into the next chapter or so, so I hope this one is okay and ties you over. thank you very much for reading and reviewing.

Gilraen Luinwe: Raven's got the moves for offense, but she bides her time deciding her strategy and we'll see more of that eventually but as always, obstacles will arise...Thank you for your consistent support, dear! I'm always greatly motivated by such kind encouragement.

xxx.Pyro Eclipse.xxx:accepts cookie: Thank you much. Your reviews make me very enthused about writing this. So um…Update here!

Misha: I am flattered! Thank you. There are quite a good number of amazing Raven and Robin stories, better than mine, but I am sincerely glad you are liking my fic. I really appreciate that!

Neverwinter: chapters more, here. Thank you for the review, and taking the time to do so. (:grateful:)

Teen Titans Obsessor: I OBSESS too. (grins) Thank you very much! I have thusly continued and hope you enjoy this next chapter.

SilverBlueEmpath: wow...(head spins) Thank you for ALL your reviews! You are so nice to take the time. And no worries about rambles or whatnot. I do them all the time and mine are reallyyyyyyyyy bad. Haha.

Tecna: I rule? (big evil grin) the world? Hmmm...okay I don't. sigh. Heh. That aside, HUGE THANKS for your reviews and support of 'winner takes all'.

Final Fight: I super appreciate your reviews, Final Fight. Thank you for reading this story and I hope it continues to hold your interest.

AinoMinako: MMmm, well things cool down a bit now even though I guess that was a cliffhanger, but I hope it's still okay, interesting at least! My ego is very grateful for the reviews, AinoMinako.

Sunshine: wow. That's a huge compliment. I really myself do not mind Robin and Starfire, but I have difficulty finding their dynamic as a writer. In any case, thank you so much. It is always a great surprise and gift to me when someone who usually or for the most part, supports RobxStar or RaexBB still tells me they find my writing interesting, even if it isn't their favorite coupling. Thank you so much. You're very kind.

mysti-eyed: Ah the progression is difficult because clearly we've established mr. traffic light is on the offense but Raven is neither on defense nor offense so it's hard sometimes for me to figure how she might react or act but I think it came out okay too! Thank you for reviewing so nicely.

LaDyPnAi: I have continued! (hops around in a circle)

HermioneGranger22491: That is an enormous compliment considering there is a multitude of other better written ones, but I accept it with a huge smile and endless thanks! You made my day.

Anaroka: aw, that's not dirty. Just human. Don't worry. I think this story has actually got quite a few people who like it (I'm still surprised since I've been told for years how much my writing sucks haha) which I am grateful for—the kind reviews are super encouraging.

Lady Sonora the Black-Rose: Still can't get over how cool your penname is. Anyway, thank you for the review and the cookies! I hope this update didn't take too long and hope it is to your liking.

Xyteron: Thank you. I am attempting to write a little more fluidly and while I have not yet read 'childhood games' your review sparked my interest so after work tonight I shall have something to look forward to reading!

icegirlz13: continued, I have. oh yoda influence...okie, anyway thank you for taking the time to review, as always.

RedRover3173: you always review! Thank you so much. That means the world to me. I myself try to review every chapter of the stories I read when I like them but I slip up and sometimes am too lazy. So I really admire and appreciate your show of support. Thank you a thousand times!

pureangel86: here's what happens next and of course, a thank you to you for reviewing.

my alter-ego: AH! (hops up and down) I know I'm repeating myself now but I am so serious when I say that your kind of review is always a pleasant surprise. It lets me know that even if it isn't the starlit couple of a person's favor, a story can still interest a person, favorite pairing aside. That is an intense complimentary review and I thank you for it, and for taking the trouble to produce an alter-ego to review it at all!

Celestial Chaos: I do need continued support, my ego is a ridiculous and heinous beast which is probably why my teachers and other peers never liked my writing haha, they said it wasn't very good so I'm always doubting myself. Thank you for providing said support though; it means a lot to me.

evilsangle: thank you! Disclaimer. I shall remember. Ah coffee...I must...thank you for the review and I'll lay off the coffee once I locate my green tea.

Shattered Eyes: I think in a couple fics I've read that he always DOES wear his mask in the shower but I thought about the impracticality of it all and how Robin's character tends to function and how IF he were in such a situation, if he TRULY felt at risk, he would place it on AFTER the shower. As it is, part of the idea behind it is that he can sense if Raven's near or not through their bond and so he probably was still lax in his attention to such a thing—an abnormality, but a possibility nonetheless. Thank you for the review and sorry I babbled. I explain way too much sometimes...silly me. bLargh.

Yorick: thank you much! (smiles)

arielkid78: also thank you much. (smile grows)

karmarox: oh the happy medium, how I chase it with pens at hand and paper in my pocket...um. yeah. Haha. Okay shut up me. Thank YOU for the review and the compliment. I am grateful.

Allie: thank you very much for reviewing and here is chapter five.

Darkofthenight: Glad you liked it. Hope you still do. And thank you!

Jane: I understand this gets a little insincere sounding once I have done several versions of simple gratitude, but I must continue and hope you know I do mean it: thank you for the review. As one might suppose, the time a person takes to submit one of simple encouragement is a great motivation to keep on writing.

DivineRose2392: LONG silly list but all you people deserve it and so much more for being so patient and reviewing to remind me that people enjoy the story. Thank you and I wish I could do more, but hopefully this chapter is sufficient until the next chapter. Let me know.

HighFlyer09: nine is my favorite number. And off of that random note, thank you for your review/ support!

Devyn Thompson: Ah well in the comics his eyes are definitely blue, so um, there you go. Hehe. I adore the striking look black hair and blue eyes gives though, so I am biased and even if there are several accounts disputing the blueness of his orbs, I would have taken artistic license upon myself... I am glad you are reading my story and hope it continues to interest you!

Chica De Los Ojos Cafe: THANK YOU!

AuroraMikayla: I KNOW! See, I think most people forget that while Robin is both analytical and often portrayed as relatively reserved because he is 'the leader' compared to the others, he IS aggressive and stubborn as Hell, a sparking similarity to our dear empath that would, in my opinion, become thusly apparent in a given situation. Thank you for the review and I am glad you agree with my take on an aggressive approach for our dear god of the hair gel...haha.

DITZY: Continued! Thanks for reviewing.

chiba-wafu: your review is very much appreciated! (big smile)

Miss A. LaRosa: thank you, Miss!

Cherry Jade: As always you are most fantastic, Cherry Jade and your reviews are ever pleasing and encouraging, as well as motivating for me to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. Your support is entirely awesome and I thank you.

Trinity: Thank you! I am glad you liked it and I shall do my best to restrain myself from beating my head on various things when I get writer's block haha...thank you for caring, Miss T.

The Sacred Heart 2: I KNOW! Hope you're liking it still. There's some Raven and Robin in this one, less than the last but more in the next on the up side, this one is set-up and also furthering of plot to come. Hope it keeps your interest!

Raven42431: Thank you! A couple words can and do often mean the world to me. I think people get the idea a review must be long or something to be worth it, but that's not true and I am glad that you seem to agree. Asking for an update is as encouraging as anything else and I'm grateful you took the time to tell me you're interested! Thank you again.

Ravens-Rage: I am very glad you like it so far! THANK YOU!

notyouraverageblond: Thank you very much.

kp'k': Heh. I say that all the time. Thank you!

Darkofthenight: My gratitude goes out to you! Okay, that's just a euphemism for thank you but it looks shoddy writing it three times in a row, haha. I care about each review very much and I'm about at my wit's end trying to come up with new creative ways to make each thank you specific.

Tiny: I am glad you stumbled on my stories as well. Your reviews are very kind. Thank you very much and hopefully chapter five is up to par!

lolopixie: Thank you for the 'favorite' and you flatter me when you compliment my writing! Thank you so much. This fic and my other one are the first things I've written in a couple of years. I stopped writing before because my instructors did not approve of my 'creative writing' because it was 'nonsense' but now I'm out of school and going to college where they are not so nit picky. Having gotten into teen titans only recently, I was inspired and thought I'd try my hand at it. I've been on for a while and I'm glad to be an active part of it finally. Heh.

artemisgirl: thank you for your extremely nice review. Your words mean a lot to me and I am really glad you think it isn't too forced; I've had my reservations about how the two birds act and how they might not, but I really wanted to draw attention to several things in this story without actually saying so. First, that they are teens and things are BOUND to happen. Second that raven and robin have a chemistry I've yet to see rivaled in recent television that has a subtle edge of depth, which I adore. I'm glad you think so too and am very grateful for you review. Thank you so much.

animefreak404112: I am glad it is to your liking and I am thankful for your review. Heh. Your penname reminds me of myself. I could be described as such…(has own evil bout of laughter)

Ranger117: (fanfare) thank you and here is chapter five. Thanks for the encouragement.

realfanficts: (yelps) eep. Um, here is chapter five…um , hope you like it? (hides) thank you for the review!

Dorker: ah yes, this will actually be explained, his 'experience' but not in this chapter. Thank you for taking time to review.

Magicallyness: Raven's sarcasm is an art form I am attempting to capture, PAINSTAKINGLY, I might add. She's just so witty with it and I want to do her justice...ah, I hope you like this chapter. There's not as MUCH banter as I would have liked but one must break from good things for them to remain interesting I guess. Thank you for the review and also, yes, I enjoy making Robin's charming arrogance prominent in this. It's usually only obvious when they're fighting the bad guys, but in theory, it would come across if he was trying to woo someone too, right?

chibi playing with fire: ah! Thank you for the picket line! That's awesome.

cute-battery: I like the change too. I mean I've seen it before, not saying I'm an absolute original by any means (shakes head) but given the two options, I prefer him going after her since I doubt Raven would ever pursue such a thing, being who she is, completely of her own volition. Persuasion is a necessity, yes?

Whiteraven: more is here! Thank you for the review!

turq: thank you for reviewing and hope you like this next chapter!

lil runt: it's damn hot where I am and unfortunately it's got nothing to do with my story...sigh. stupid summer. I hate the sun...haha, getting off topic anyway, thank you for the review and I am glad that chapter wasn't too long. I hope this one is okay too. As for cat fights, I don't see it in their nature because in truth, I see the friendship of Star and Rae to be something understated but steadfast and in being true to Star's character, I do not think where Raven is concerned she would give into a catty nature. It's not like she's dealing with (shudders) KITTEN after all...ewwww. anyway, thank you again for your review and hope this chapter is good too for you.

Unforeseen: Your review was very solid and supportive and it truly lifted my writer's spirit today! Thank you so much and I hope this chapter continues to hold your interest.

M.I.A. Since 85: I shall be kind to her. I like Starfire and her behavior truly calls for kindness toward her character. I am glad you like the story and thank you for reviewing.

d: um, who are you please? (confused)

chiclet2021: SUPER DUPER THANK YOU. I am very happy you liked chapter three and hope chapter 5 is as enjoyable.

Riyonae: I am the KING of typos, yes, KING...a queen is too smart for me...haha...anyway, thank you for your awesome review and here is chapter 5.

erinnn: here is the update and I thank you for your review!

morgan000: here it is. Thank you for taking time to tell me you were interested in an update!

KenshinGal128: I am glad you do! Hope you still do after this chapter!

* * *

Holy crap. Tell me that's all of you. Please. I'll feel really bad if I missed anyone but that took up 12 pages...okay. On the bright side, I think by now you all know how much your support/reviews are appreciated, and that has not changed. Let me know what you think if you have a moment, at any time!

So, without further ado, chapter 5.

* * *

**Winner Takes All**

Chapter Five: A Little Friendly Competition

* * *

She found herself dreadfully aware of his weight on her again, of their proximity and all too focused on the fact that neither of them even tried to speak. They only lay there, bodies pressed together in what in the light of a normal room, would be considered very, very compromising.

Raven found herself thinking the dark was a traitorous thing for letting her get so carried away but had little time to continue to think on that as she felt Robin's finger sweeping delicately under her jaw, a feathered touch. She felt his thumb caress her lips softly and she parted them instinctively as he drew his head down to hers again.

_Such distraction..._

There was something of an explosive noise from beyond the closed door of the research room, followed by outraged cries from both Beast Boy and Cyborg, as well as a startled yelp from Starfire.

They broke apart and Raven took the moment her lips were freed to curse like a sailor—not that she had ever met a sailor, but she assumed it was just as bad. The state of affairs certainly called for it. To her chagrin, Robin seemed as unfazed as she was upset and therefore, not deterred in the least.

"I'm thinking the only way to control your emotions now Raven, is to experience them," he whispered in a tone that would have been less convincing if the empath didn't already want to believe him.

_Wait_...she _wanted_ to believe him? _Oh no..._

She could have slapped herself.

_Damn, damn, and damn._

She let her eyes wander to Robin who returned the look.

His mask was off still, eyes still heated with their recent activity. She knew she must look similarly flustered and, though it was probably a silly thing to do, she drew her cape around her closely and firmly shut her eyes, turning away. Robin repressed a sigh. Out of the moment, Raven, it seemed, would continue to throw up walls around her...walls he still intended to scale, no matter how long it took. Thusly resolved, he plucked the fallen mask from the ground and placed it over his eyes again.

"Yo, Robin! You still got power in there? Everything's out as far as I can see," Cyborg's voice rocketed through the closed door. Robin stood to open it and Raven felt his lips as he gently placed a kiss on each of her closed eyes before he crossed the room. Realizing he was about to open the door, she did not leave but dove behind one of the remaining mountains of paperwork, hoping her cloak blended in with the accentuated darkness of a powerless room.

"Yeah, nothing here either. Can we fix it?" Robin asked, as if nothing was going on.

"Well, yeah, but I just can't figure out what did it," Cyborg scratched his head, "Usually the only kind of thing that can cause this is a big storm but there isn't a cloud in sight! Or Raven," he added thoughtfully and peered in past Robin. "You make her angry or something?" Robin shook his head plainly.

"Nope. I know better," he grinned that care-free grin and shrugging, Cyborg nodded and went to check the main power source. In front of the dead television, Starfire was trying to calm an enraged Beast Boy.

"I just made it to the toughest level and ZAP!" the changeling practically bawled and then, opting for further sympathy, changed into a kitten to have Starfire placate him by stroking his back kindly, which she did with patience. Robin shook his head. Truly, they were a ragtag bunch. Turning back in, the door whooshed shut behind him. He let his eyes readjust to the pitch blackness, making out the couple of stacks of research left and noticed the edge of a cloak peaking out from between two of them.

"You can come out now. He's gone," Robin said and there was a shifting noise as Raven peered untrustingly around the corner of a pile.

"How can you act so calm?" she asked, frantic and confused. If she had not known—and boy did she know—what had just happened she would never have suspected a thing. He stood there like it was any other day, like nothing had happened, like everything was peachy. _Like Hell_ _I'm gonna let him get away with that impassive act after that fiasco_, she thought angrily.

"Because I know how I feel," he said calmly, her anger deflating instantly at his genuine tone.

Damn it all, was it too much for him to let her be livid with him, for _one_ moment? She blinked back some of her antagonism, focusing on calming herself, vaguely aware of the renewed danger she was putting the tower's remaining electricity and functionality in.

Noticing her indignant expression mixed with her attempt to recompose herself, Robin's lopsided smile returned, to Raven's further aggravation.

Okay, _two_ moments?

"You stole my fury," she said finally and settled for huffing.

"I gave up petty theft," Robin grinned at her, alluding to the Red X fiasco with more lightness than ever before. He probably would not have done so if he had known the events of the upcoming evening but he was not precognitive. So he kept on grinning at her, a little too cocky for her tastes.

At least he was a decent three feet away from her still. That helped.

_A little._

Of course, there was the small problem of her flustered state, the small problem of her wanting more of what had just transpired and kicking herself in the shins mentally for wanting it at all, the small problem that was her and Robin.

"What are we?" she asked. Raven bit her lower lip in an unconscious effort to keep her emotions in check while still seeking solidarity in a single question.

"What do you want us to be?" he matched her; a smirk for a scowl, an easy silence for a perturbed one, an honest question for an impossibly vague one.

"You know," Raven sidestepped his response and said, "I actually miss the light in here, not that there was much." Well, that wasn't exactly what she meant. What meant was that she wanted the protection offered by the visibility the glow of the flat screens would provide.

As if on cue, there was a sparking noise and a bleeping and the machines in the room whirred with life again, the screen flickering back on, Slade's face appearing from a cutout Robin had scanned in to apply weakness and strength stats to.

From through the walls they heard a distinct "BOOYAH!"

They shared a couple of wry smiles.

"I won't change my mind, Raven," he told her, the flicker of the screen with his mortal enemy on it playing background to his stubborn visage. She found the combination of his seriousness and the viciousness of Slade on the screen to have the same effect as a thousand pounds of lead being dropped on her.

And when she said nothing, finding nothing that seemed right to say, Robin accepted the quiet again and went to reorganizing the now badly disarrayed piles of new research.

Raven frowned slightly and busied herself doing much the same thing as Robin, as she considered his proclamation, finding that she both hated his candor and envied his conviction.

------------------------------------------------------------------

A while later, her disposition had, of course, not changed in the least.

"What kind of fool claims to know how they really feel anyway?" she muttered to herself later when she retired to her haven, having ordered Robin out of the researching room to do _anything_ but research. The door barely shut behind her before she held out a hand and several impressive volumes of various writings shuffled reluctantly out of her unorganized piles. Eyeing them with some distaste, Raven set her chosen readings for the evening in a neat stack at the foot of her bed and took a moment to remedy the mess on the other end of her room, papers and more books and objects all askew. While she was in no way the 'neat freak' she had christened Robin once after seeing his room some time ago, she did like her things to have places they belonged.

It didn't take long and soon she levitated comfortably above her bed, letting her mind thumb blandly through the pages of the middle sized book while her actual thumb flipped through a smaller volume and the largest floated dormant behind her. There was a part in one of these books she wanted to find but she could not for the life of her remember which it was or at what point it might be in any of her less than arbitrary choices.

This was easier than contemplating her questionable feelings for the last remaining flying Grayson. Against her better judgment, a small smile graced her lips at the thought of his real name that only she knew, of the titans anyway. No one was there to see the softness of her lip's upward curve, or they might have suspected her of being in love.

Raven told herself she didn't do love. She wasn't allowed.

With a sneaking suspicion that her subconscious was laughing at her with an infuriating amount of hilarity, Raven set herself once again to strictly looking for that section of writing that might tell her how Slade had so inconveniently controlled and smothered her power.

She desperately wanted to void her mind of needless distraction and tumultuous emotional upheaval that could only result in an exploding game station or the repeat of the T tower's power outage.

So, when two blue eyes kept showing up in her vision unbidden, masked and smirking, she dove impatiently inside her mind and threatened a pink caped version of herself with a week of solitary confinement. As a result, with a somewhat vexed if playful giggle, it retreated to a place of Nevermore that helped Raven to put that part of her aside for now. If a yellow caped Raven rolled her eyes and looked down her nose at normal Raven, normal Raven did her best not to notice. Likewise, she pointedly ignored the knowing smirk of Cleverness (sometimes called Smug when she got particularly catty) as she exited the warlike mirror to the normalcy of her room.

She exhaled.

_Much better._

Hours later, Raven was about to give up on her fruitless search for answers concerning the strange containment devices Slade had conjured up when a soft knock came at her door. Couldn't be Cyborg; he had too much bulk to be so quiet. Beast Boy would have pounded—well, that or transformed himself into something Starfire would call cute and fluffy and meowed through the wall until she opened it. Robin would have said her name right away. So that only left...

The knock came again, a little less hesitant this time.

"Starfire," Raven greeted evenly as she opened her door to the bright eyed Tameranian.

"Friend Raven, do you have time? I would like to have the speaking of privacy with you," Starfire requested softly and Raven had a sinking feeling she knew what it was.

Without a word she stepped aside and the unusually subdued redhead flew quickly in, as though fearful of being caught doing something she should not.

"What is it Star?" Raven did her best to actually sound caring; the occasion seemed like it might require it and she didn't need Starfire thinking she was heartless just because she was toneless.

"It is about friend Robin," Starfire began and Raven bit her tongue hard to remind herself not to roll her eyes in frustration. That would certainly be taken the wrong way. Starfire continued, aware of the tension but unaware as to the exact reason for it. "This afternoon I did the offering of my services of assistance to him concerning his hunt for the man named Slade. However, he turned me away. He did this twice and I did not ask again for fear of it becoming thrice since thrice is a bad omen on my planet." Star paused here and when Raven only continued to meet her eyes in silence she asked: "Have I angered friend Robin?"

_Oh Star_, Raven thought with a gentleness she was unaccustomed to feeling. She kicked herself, or would have if it hadn't been terribly awkward to actually carry out. _Poor Tameranian, _Raven mused_. Robin could never be 'angry' at you._

"No, Starfire. He's not angry with you at all. He just wanted to do it alone," Raven realized her mistake the moment the last word left her mouth. Starfire's green eyes gazed at her levelly, a flicker of abnormal light noticeable around her irises.

It might have been hurt. It might have been envy.

It might have been quite a bit of both.

"But friend Raven, Robin was not alone," Star did not need to say who had been with him. They were smart girls. They knew what was at hand here.

"Star..." for once, Raven Roth did not know what to say. This was not the place for witty remarks. Luckily, she didn't need them.

The red lights flared and the alarm panicked itself into a tizzy.

"Titans, the docks, west pier," Robin's voice came over their com links and Starfire, after sharing a glance with Raven that insinuated finishing this conversation later, hurried out the door at his voice, catching up with Beast Boy who bounded down the hall. Closing her eyes, Raven felt her hood materialize over her and followed suit.

------------------------------------------------------------------

"Titans, we need to split up. Star, fly through the moored ships and check those out. Beast Boy, take the docks and the landing. Cyborg, take the first warehouse; I'll take the second; Raven take the last. Titans, GO!"

And they were off before the last word left his mouth.

Raven phased through the wall of the warehouse, not seeing much point in a door she had no need of. It was a reasonably large building made of concrete, typical. Careful to take in everything around her, she zipped through the many boxes and things and shelves to see if anyone was there. The dark of the one huge room was only slightly illuminated by the dim glow of the moon through one uppermost window in a corner and that was where she found the one who had gotten them all dragged out here at this unseemly hour.

"How's life treating you, gorgeous?" A familiar silhouette flipped casually to land in front of her, skull mask blaring at her as he blocked a kick she threw at him—instinct from her most recent training that consisted of honing her almost nonexistent physical skills. .

"X," she glowered and wasted no time in heaving boxes of whatever at the agile thief.

"Whoa, simmer there doll face," he laughed and dodge as a particularly nasty mass of black energy sent some metal parts his way.

"My name is Raven," she reminded him none too lightly and dove at him, blasts of energy preceding her. "Azarath, Metrion, Zinthos!"

"I know _that_," Red X tossed an X at her casually to bind her mouth but she was at least as good as he was at evasive techniques and she dodged without trouble.

"What are you doing here anyway?" she spat, eyes glowing the eerie white of a brink on her stronger power.

"Running an errand, delivering a message, tedious things really. Though I had hoped I might run into you," he said as calmly as if they were fast friends. She bit back a toneless laugh of derision at the very notion. She could feel his smirk even if she couldn't see it.

"What?" she asked after a few minutes, irritated with his smug silence.

"You stopped attacking me," X observed handily and ducked as several steel crowbars went sailing clean over his head. "Right. Next time I think I'll keep that to myself," he said thoughtfully.

"Who are you working for?" Raven tried an approach she imagined Robin might have gone with.

"You should know better, pretty," he reversed his flip and landed behind her, securing her arms soundly behind her back. "I don't work for anyone but myself."

"Again, my name is Raven," she said venomously and then as an afterthought she quipped, "Just looking out for number one." X seemed pleased, taking her use of his own catch phrase to mean that he was memorable.

Even to her.

"I had no idea I was quotable!" he mocked but became excessively wary as she fazed out of his hands, ten feet in front of him.

"You aren't. It's just something that describes the kind of person you are," Raven clarified. One of the last things she needed was for this pompous idiot to think he was held in any remote form of good regards in her head. Her power lashed out at him.

"I get the feeling it wasn't a compliment then," he replied lazily. "I'm hurt," he chuckled with a carelessness that suggested the exact opposite, and tossed something at her she could not identify.

The explosion that followed its connection with the ground spoke for itself as part of a concrete divider collapsed down on her.

Raven groaned and cursed the masked men of the world. They were positively nothing but trouble for her. Rubble shifted off of her as she moved, trying to push off a rather heavy slab of concrete off of her until she swore with a God-give-me-strength expression and simply fazed out from under it. She needed to clear her head...

"I've decided you don't fight fair," X conversed with her as she situated herself from t he crumpled heap on the floor to one of barely there dignity, floating above it. "Not everyone can manage that convenient little fazing technique."

"Like you would know anything about fairness," she squared with him.

"Good point," he acquiesced and with an alarming speed dove down off of his perch on a ledge against the wall and brought her down with him, pinned under his arms that restrained her.

"You always have to prove a point," she muttered darkly.

"Same as you," he echoed some of her earlier words and eyed her casually for a moment. "You really are something. It was hard to tell last time, since you know, you were unconscious and all that."

"And I wonder whose fault that was," she said with trademark sarcasm that X was surprised could be expressed with her equally monotone quality as she alluded to their last encounter, some time ago.

Their eyes opened a staring contest and the pause that ensued was not quite awkward but not comfortable either as Raven ceased to struggle and Red X loosened his grip in an odd show of solicitousness.

More might have been said, but fate wasn't up to it that night it seemed.

"X!" Robin yelled, more to get his creation's attention than anything else and only when the masked face turned to his own did he notice the form beneath him…Raven.

"Step away from her ya sleazebag!" Cyborg ordered, leveling his cannon at their resident bandit in the night. Beast Boy in the form of a tiger growled unhappily; the position the two were in from where the other titans stood was less than pleasing and more than a little compromising.

"That looks like my cue, sweets," X commented, arrogant as ever, and to Raven's combined shock and anger and something else, he traced a finger beneath her jaw lightly before kissing her.

"X!" Robin's voice careened through the air, livid, and as if timed and tuned exactly to his imminent fury, five rather large bundles of cargo set to be shipped the next day exploded into unidentifiable smithereens. That was, of course, Raven's powers getting thrown for a loop, but one couldn't deny the unmistakable effect it gave Robin's warning shout, directed of course, at his once alter, alter- ego.

It was over in less than a minute: the strangely gentle gesture, the kiss, Robin's anger, the explosion and then Red X's venerable escape through that single window in the corner of the house. Starfire shot out the window after him and the others dashed back out the door the way they came, hot on the invisible trail.

Raven followed at a somewhat slower pace and absently ran her fingers over her lips. The kiss had not been a hard one but it had not been a soft one either, enough to bruise slightly but not enough to make her breathless, which she knew was not his intent, in any case.

_Who knows what anyone's intent is anyway?_ She admitted, frowning and took off with new speed toward the others.

She got to the top of one of the buildings nearest the pier to catch the ends of what sounded like a heated argument as he and Robin dueled—one fueled by amusement, the other by severe irritation. The others were otherwise occupied with strange bots that reminded Raven greatly of Slade, but they were not his trademark cronies, so she hesitated to connect the two, even as she joined the fray with glowing eyes and a taste for her enemy's destruction.

She was sick of being toyed with tonight and with a vengeance, she let the bots know it. Witness to one of her more unyielding attacks, Beast Boy found himself appreciating the fact that he was not on her bad side tonight. Cyborg just shook his head and Starfire yelped as some of Raven's energy nearly grazed her.

"Sorry Star," Raven grumbled, throwing more bots telepathically to their junkyard worthy fates.

Meanwhile, the two evenly matched and masked young men battled each other, their conversation linking their movements like something choreographed out of a book.

"You're rather possessive," X taunted as he very nearly suffered losing his head—or at least breaking his neck—ducking a powerful swipe from Robin's bow staff.

"Protective," Robin bit out, continuing his attack.

"Ah, so she isn't yours after all," the blithe young man's eyes lit anew with something Robin felt a distinct revulsion to. "Honestly I think her color scheme goes better with mine anyway," he grinned.

"Stay away from her," Robin spat. At this point, he was so wrapped up in his fight with Red X, he didn't realize how loudly he had said that. Green eyes framed by red locks stared at him questioningly.

Cyborg and Beast Boy's heads turned sharply as if to say, "Say what?" which they did.

Raven, for her part, continued to bash bots into concrete until they were nothing but unfixable parts, fully aware of what was being said and fully intending to ignore it.

"It's not like you've got your name on her or anything," X smirked and added, "What's the matter Robin? Afraid of a little friendly competition?" At this, the leader of the titans chanced a look at the empath who chanced a look in their direction at the same time.

Amethyst met hidden blue and a smug look tugged at Robin's lips as he turned back to X, "I don't do fear." He leapt at his opponent, red tingeing his vision.

"Cyborg, Beast Boy, Starfire, a little help?" Raven grunted as she barely avoided a bot smashing into her side. Jolted out of the confusion they had just witnessed and would undoubtedly ponder and question about later, they ran to assist.

"Tell me who you are working for," Robin said. X rolled his eyes behind his mask. _Birds_, he thought in mild amusement, laced with annoyance at their similar take on things.

"She asked the same thing and I didn't give her a straight answer. What makes you think you're any different?" X asked, clearly interested in what the bird boy's answer might be.

"It wasn't a request," Robin replied and struck out at X. It was aimed for his nose but he turned barely in time, getting it on the right side of his masked face instead. X rubbed his jaw ruefully.

"Actually I know the difference," he paused and could feel Robin resizing the situation as more bots piled onto the rooftop and the others began to seem overwhelmed, "She's a lot hotter than you are, no offense," he added with a smirk. "I just don't swing that way," and he flipped off the edge of the building, landing with cat's grace. Robin seethed. "Your friends look like they could use a hand," X laughed and melted into the shadows as Robin, thoroughly disgruntled and more irate than ever, threw himself into the mess of machines, bow-staff twirling like mad.

They won of course.

But no titan returned that night without considerable scrapes and bruises, all of which were treated in the med room.

Except for Raven. She insisted she would heal herself in her own way and Cyborg, a big brother with a knack for knowing when to just say 'okay' to the dark girl, relented. The empath retired to her room for the second time that day, now evening, wanting to avoid the uncomfortable stares three of the other titans sent her way, and Robin's.

X's taunting words had been heard by all of them.

Raven made a mental note to give him five unhealthy helpings of Hell for his untimely and unwarranted remarks--not to mentionthe kiss--and sighed, her bangs blowing off her forehead and then settling back to curtain her eyes, accentuating her mood of brooding.

Things were getting just a little too sketchy for her liking.

* * *

So here's the grand entrance of Red X. I had planned to have him show up next chapter, but sometimes these characters start running circles around me and I have no choice but to give in. In his case, he kept laughing at me in my head until I worked him in here. You all have probably inferred that he is a bigger part in this story than is let on in this chapter, so I guess it's fair enough warning. Hope no one has anything against him. I rather like the persona of Red X.

Thank you for reading and see you next chapter. Hope this one was okay. A little less banter but I'm working on a rather wit-driven one next, I think. Or at least moments.

-Rei


	6. Chapter 6: sweet Raven

**Disclaimer of doom: Teen Titans is so super duper not mine. Bother and confound it all!**

* * *

**Winner Takes All**

Chapter Six: Sweet Raven

* * *

It seemed to be a general understanding between each of the five titans that the words of Red X were not to be mentioned and that any questions concerning the resident Raven were to be withheld. 

Or else.

As Raven was very, very good at maintaining a rather frigid air of 'Or else', no one felt it worth risking his or her life to find out what would most likely at best be a very vague explanation that left them both at the mercy of her wrath and just as clueless as they began.

So decided, they continued functioning as usual and as it was morning, the usual thing to do was to have breakfast. Today they ate out at what had become their customary breakfasting location and did what they normally did over the morning meal...

"Moonlight Stroll!" Beast Boy suggested, munching on some tofu bacon. Amethyst eyes turned to him and told him he was wrong and if he doubted their meaning, the head holding the eyes shook curtly at him.

"Strangers in the Night," the dark girl said and Beast Boy let out an exasperated exhale.

"That's the fourth one in a row! It's not fair," the changeling complained. The empath arched an eyebrow.

"It's not my fault some of us are more musically informed than others." At this, Beast Boy proceeded to transform into kitten form and seek soothing from a mildly confused Starfire who relented and scratched behind his ears. He didn't really require such attentions, but he figured if he could, then why not, right?

"Shhh, a new one's starting," Robin waved his hand in a shushing manner. They quieted. Starfire looked up as though she might see the song written somewhere while Cyborg's brows knit together in contemplation and Beast Boy scrunched his face in befuddlement, still a kitten on Star's lap. Robin tapped his chin thoughtfully and Raven never changed her expression or position at all even if she did find Robin making said 'shushing' motion rather funny—he looked like an irate librarian or something.

"Moonlight Stroll?" Beast Boy tried again.

"No, Beast Boy," Robin said quickly, noticing Raven bristle at their friend's incorrigible insistence.

"An American in Paris?" Raven supposed out loud but then changed her mind and went back to analyzing the instrumental version of whatever old song was playing.

The titans sat in what could only be described as a diner, having foregone the age old battle of tofu versus meat. It so happened that this was a place that always played old movie soundtracks, each track from a different cinematic classic. They were all instrumental however and after a few times of coming and going, the teens had started a bit of a friendly game as they waited for their food: guess the song and keep count yourself since if you're ahead or behind no one else will tell you and if that happens, too bad about it for you!—the latter part of the instructions came from Raven who instilled them after a rather short-tempered breakfast when argument broke out over who had what points.

They had paid in dish washing for damages.

This day was going by pretty docilely though, the count being Raven-4, Beast Boy-3, Cyborg-2, Starfire-1 (by what means she knew the song, none of them were quite sure but happy enough to let her take the point since as it turned out, none of them had known it until she said it), and Robin-4.

It was not an unusual score.

"Une autre d'ete," Robin finally said with an impeccable French accent and the others—save Raven—groaned as they realized he was right. Raven settled for her trademark scowl. Robin was ahead by one now.

She hated to lose nearly as much as he did as ascertained in recent events.

Picking up the teaspoon at her right, she clanged it absently against the side of her mug, tea steaming as the teabag steeped, sugar dissolving in bursts. While this song finished the titans resumed their meal, their 'fast breaking' as Starfire so joyously referred to it. Cyborg had waffles—as if that was a surprise. Beast Boy had something that looked like eggs but definitely wasn't. Starfire...well, Starfire's plate was a veritable smorgasbord of things that wouldn't regularly go on a normal smorgasbord with a debatably unhealthy amount of mustard. Robin had coffee and toast.

And Raven...

_Herbal tea_, she thought with a slight mental smile. The very routine of it gave her peace of mind, however brief.

"The Girl from Ipanema?" Cyborg threw out as another song began. Starfire turned.

"Is she your friend?" the Tameranian asked, glancing around for a sign of this 'Ipanema-ian'. The name sounded as odd as hers.

"No Star, it's just another song," Beast Boy clarified—having turned himself back to normal in order to eat with a fork rather than his hands—and when her face dropped a bit he patted her on the shoulder briefly, at which she smiled. In his own way, Beast Boy could be as sympathetic as the next guy—well, the next guy who could turn into a 300,000 pound whale and the like.

"In the mood," Raven said, staring over the rim of her mug.

"For romance?" Robin added lightly. This elicited a perplexed look from Starfire and two suspicious ones from the tin man and the green one that Robin took casual care to pretend he didn't notice.

"Glen Miller wrote it; it's one of the most popular of its era," she said, ignoring him blithely. After a bit of an awkward silence, Beast Boy took it upon himself to bring a matter of utmost importance back to the center of attention.

"Okay, chalks up to you and Raven being tied, next song is the last song," he said in a cheesy officiator's tone and while Raven rolled her eyes, she honed her ears to pick up the incoming tune with rabid focus.

Cyborg lifted his hand for the check while Starfire questioned Beast Boy as to why her use of mustard on everything from a blueberry muffin to watercress was so strange and Robin—sitting across from Raven—stared at her to a point of unsettling her.

Not that she showed it, but he could feel it. Their bond could be quite handy. When he could not read her face and she wasn't putting mental slabs up between him and her, he could often sense what she was thinking or feeling, if not see it plainly on her face.

The song ended, and guesses began...

"Moonlight Stroll?" a small voice ventured in jest.

"NO!" all the others chorused. Beast Boy cringed. Okay, bad joke. More silence...

"Ai no fugue, or Fugue in G minor," Robin smirked in blatant triumph as Raven glowered.

She pointedly sipped at her tea.

"And the winner—" Beast Boy's grand announcer spiel blotted itself out as quickly as it had come when he felt the burning stare of amethyst eyes attack him with an expression along the lines of 'I'll tear you to pieces and then sew you together and bathe you in acid if you don't shut up...now'. The shape shifter gave a very forced, extremely nervous laugh and wrapped it up with, "—doesn't really matter because we're done! Time to go home!" His voice cracked on the last sentence and after one more deciding peek at a simmering Raven, he shot out of the booth and the others followed at a more leisurely pace.

Robin walked too close to Raven for her liking as they too exited the diner.

"Like I said, you're a sore loser," he poked at the middle of her back and she flinched.

"Egoist," she shot back, not sparing him her usual sideways glare.

"If you've got it, flaunt it," Robin grinned.

"Yeah, you've got it...got a whole lot of nothing," she muttered under her breath. Unfortunately for her, her leader was feeling particularly cheeky today and had heard her mutter.

"A lot of nothing that it would not hurt you to explore," he tossed the remark over his shoulder as he decided that seeking hasty haven in walking between Starfire and Cyborg was wise when he noticed some dark energy began to fizzle around Raven's clenched hands.

She exhaled roughly. _Stupid bird boy. Stupid mask. Stupid masked boys! X...stupid kiss._

Her mind flashed on the kiss, making her squirm unusually. Robin caught a glimpse of that thought but she quickly stuffed it back behind her ears where it belonged before he could really see that's he was, in fact, dwelling on it.

Still, he had an idea.

His eyes scowled behind his mask. _Damnable creation_, he thought sourly.

Raven dwelled behind her protective mental shields on Red and his actions. It had been strange to have the thief kiss her, on a physical note because he still wore his mask and on another note because there had been such unexpected gentleness in it. Odd though, the mask had seemed to melt away with the gesture and then meld back when he retreated from her. She had later suspected him of having altered the suit.

Very soon after that, she worked hard to meditate the very thought of why or how or when or what, concerning both X and Robin, out of her mind completely, to little avail as when one was gone the other inevitably resurfaced.

And of course there was still the matter of Slade's ability to control her powers, on a darker note—well, not control them, but stifle them, which was in ways, just as bad.

She altered her previous thought: _stupid masked men_.

There was an instant in which she considered pulling out her hair to relieve the mental hurricane blowing through but thought better of it, calming in time to keep from blowing up the corner store and refrain from sending a few renegade buses off without their drivers.

_I am in control_, she told herself.

A nearby hydrant exploded. A few civilians yelped in surprise and leapt back.

The titans stared back at Raven, quizzically. Pushing past them in a mood that had the very clear air of _'leave me alone if you don't want to die a very painful death or have me ingest your soul', _she proceeded to melt into the shadows of a conveniently placed alley, headed on a direct course for the tower.

Cyborg watched her go and then, a light went off in his head. He turned to Robin.

"What'd you do, man?" he asked. Robin shrugged. "Come on, don't play dumb. I've been watching you," he gave a warning look.

"Don't know what you're talking about Cy," he said easily and added, "Maybe it's that time of the month."

Robin twitched as he thought he felt something sting and hit him. He looked around to find nothing...

_Ah_, he recognized the source now as a familiar voice crept into his mind by the sharp tips of her nails.

_I heard that you dolt_, she whispered threateningly, pacing like mad in his brain and using a tenor that said that if what he meant by 'that time of the month' was that time of the month when all Robins had to be careful not to lose their heads due to pigheaded behavior, then yes, it was.

If he meant anything else, it wasn't.

Robin chuckled—seemingly to himself in front of the other titans who shot him questioning stares. (Laughing to yourself was strictly a villain's protocol.)

"It's nothing," he assured them as they all piled into the T car to go back. Cyborg sighed, not believing him for a second but let it go. Starfire remained silent, a bit of worry gracing her usually carefree features and Beast Boy—he had waited for them after having fled from a questionably irritable Raven minutes before—held his tongue as they made their way home.

_I'll show you nothing_, she spat in Robin's mind again and he winced as he felt her throw up what seemed like several hundred walls of mental steel, successfully blocking him and ejecting him out of her mind entirely.

_Ow_, his mind recoiled and he was positive that he heard the echo of a feminine snicker.

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"I presume you were successful," one eye stared unblinkingly at the skull mask.

"Was there ever any doubt?" the thief replied, arrogance seeping out shamelessly.

"There is always room for doubt, young one. Remember that," the equally confident voice said with an unrivaled coldness.

"I'll file it under a need-to-know heading," X smirked, unfazed and tossed something at his employer who caught it effortlessly.

"Good, good. You may leave." It was all but an order.

"Payment?" X queried. The one eye scrutinized him.

"Very well. You may be of further use yet," the cold voice had taken on a bored tone suddenly that X found somewhat offensive—he was far from boring after all—but disregarded when a pouch fell at his feet. Picking it up, he unzipped it to find several clips of various bills and nodded.

"I'll be around." And he disappeared.

Slade admired that about the boy, definitely—his stealth, his ability, his confidence, his willingness to do most anything for a suitable price. Yes, these were traits he could manipulate to his liking, the traits of Robin's uninhibited side that the sordid villain had tried to harness within the boy wonder, but could not.

Hence, the hiring of Red X. He was if anything, Robin's equal and rival, or better, since he didn't seem to think twice about fighting with antiheroic tactics, had no trouble playing dirty.

Slade took a moment to examine the parcel X had retrieved for him from the warehouses—apparently it had been in the last one after all—and concluded that he was on the right path. Not able to read into what was uncertain, Slade often had to go on very educated guesses and while he was more often than not dead on, there were times when he was not.

He was glad to know this time was not one of the latter.

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Rain clouds rolled through starting at mid afternoon and spreading into the early evening. The plan was to watch a movie.

"Sci-fi," Cyborg put in.

"Fantasy," Starfire suggested.

"Supernatural...or comedy, comedy is always good!" Beast Boy chimed in.

"Action," Robin said, predictable but amusing nonetheless.

They turned to Raven who gave them all a blank stare before returning to her latest literary feed, The Brothers Karamazov by Vladimir Nabokov. It was a small but very thick novel that Beast Boy theorized to weigh about one ton, no more, no less.

"Aw, come on Raven," he sidled up next to her. Her eyes moved sideways. Beast Boy promptly decided a sideways Raven glare was much scarier than her usual straightforward glower and quickly sidled back in the opposite direction.

The empath was touchy today, no doubt.

"I have an idea," Robin said as if it has just occurred to him. Raven had a bad feeling he had actually been planning this and let herself sink even deeper into the couch, if that was possible.

"What is it, friend Robin?" Starfire inquired brightly, moving closer to him.

Raven did her very utmost not to care.

So what if Robin had made some painfully obvious advances on herself lately? That didn't mean she had a claim on the boy wonder, hardly. In fact, she told herself stubbornly that she didn't even want a claim on such a cocky, colorblind...

"GLORIOUS!" her mental tirade cracked as Starfire's voice chirped in an intensely merry fashion. _Apparently_, Raven mused, _I missed the big idea._

_Shucks_.

"What do you think, friend Raven?" Starfire asked, hope glimmering in her eyes unabashedly at the bookworm as Raven squirmed for a way out of whatever the Tameranian was referring to, while simultaneously doing her best to be blind to the redhead's subtly territorial hand on Robin's shoulder.

_I don't care_, Raven told herself_. I haven't even given him an answer, not like I'm going to anyway..._she forced her mental barrage away.

"About what, Star?" she asked, forcing both a monotone and a deadpan—they were somewhat different in her opinion and when combined, she sounded particularly intimidating.

Unfortunately, it seemed, tonight was one of those nights that found Starfire oblivious to such specially perfected inflection, as became evident when she answered just as joyously as before, if not more so.

"Dancing!" the alien girl twirled with a smile so innocent, Raven could not maintain the same level of irritation she had been working at.

Still, that by no means meant she would agree to such a heinous activity.

"No," she said.

"No?" It was Robin's turn to ask the questions.

"No, thank you?" Raven responded, annoyance flashing anew at the boy wonder's dubious tone. What was he thinking? He didn't honestly believe she would ever have agreed to...

"You're going," Robin said with an adequately vexing mishmash of sternness and arrogance.

Cyborg and Beast Boy took a shared moment of prudence and backed up a good ten feet. Beast Boy motioned for Starfire to join them who, while confused a tad, did so. Cyborg made a subtle gesture at the black rivulets of power crackling around the increasingly aggravated Raven and Starfire nodded in understanding.

This might get ugly.

"I'll do as I please," Raven gave him a warning look.

_If you push me, this face is the last thing you'll see before I send you packing to Hell_, she sent him that thought faster than one of Speedy's arrows.

To her further exasperation, he seemed to pay no heed to her caveat.

"You'll have fun," the boy wonder insisted.

"I don't—" she began.

"...yes you do," he cut her off. She sizzled.

_Jerk_, she shot mentally.

_Of all trades, my lady_, he returned, discovering a gap in her mental barriers and then to the horror of everyone around him he said aloud:

"Come on Raven, afraid of nightlife?"

It was blatant mockery of her.

Beast Boy slapped his forehead in a 'Dude, no!' kind of way, and Cyborg and averted his eyes, while Starfire's eyes simply widened to the size of fishbowls. Raven's energy escalated frighteningly causing quite the momentous pandemonium: the lights going on and off, the alarm sounding and then cutting out, the toaster blowing up (who knew they had a toaster?) and a few unimportant but breakable objects shattering as well as a certain masked leader's cape bursting with black flame. Whipping it off his shoulders, Robin smote the fire.

He figured Raven's glow to be a different sort than the kind he hoped to have her experiencing some day when all the coasters started to smack him in succession—that is of course, until there were none left, and there were not too many, for which Robin was very thankful for.

And while the wisest of men would know better than to plow on so recklessly, Robin was beyond wisdom tonight. They were going out and Raven would go with them. He watched her until her fury diminished, the lights settling for their previous status of 'on' and the alarm fading out completely as the pieces of various exploded things fell with clatters and pings to the floor. Her fiery violet eyes spared him a scathing look before she shut them fiercely, reigned in all of her emotions—particularly Rage—and floated past him coughing out a disgruntled, "Fine."

Cyborg's jaw dropped. Starfire beamed in what could only be what she would call 'the look of utterly joyful surprise'. Beast Boy tilted his head, not quite comprehending all that had just happened and Robin just looked at them like they had all grown four heads each.

They checked each other, just in case, and then shot one joint stare at him; even Starfire seemed curious.

"What?" he asked. When none of them answered he said thoughtfully, "You guys going out like that?" He indicated the chef's hat on Cyborg's head from making dinner that night, then the pajamas Beast Boy was sporting and finally added specifically to Starfire, "Wear something you can dance in," for clarification.

The various titans dispersed and Robin swept up the remains of one of his thirty-three capes—now thirty-two—before going to change clothes himself. Just because he usually dressed like a traffic light (according to Raven) didn't mean that was all he owned. If one asked him, he would have just told them he had a thing for the primary colors of light, which in a twisted, passé way, made sense, as the empath would tell him one day, half amused and half incredulous.

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Raven steamed as they all rode in the T car.

Just because she had consented to this preposterous outing did not mean the same as her consent to enjoy it.

She had made it a point to pick the seat furthest from Robin and when Beast Boy tried to claim shotgun she slipped past him and fastened the seat belt over her with a severe finality to her actions. Beast Boy proceeded to the back of the car to sit next to Starfire who sat happily next to Robin. Cyborg, of course, drove.

Like he would allow anyone else...ha! Letting his cybernetic eye wander, he noted the expressions of the two birds on the team and his inward sigh was something along the lines of amused. Would they ever get it together? Sometimes he wondered. But in small ways Raven was letting her leader get closer to her, small ways that while others just saw as weird, Cyborg saw as pivotal: for instance, her going out with them tonight. No one had really seen her agreement coming, much less the change of clothes.

Raven never changed what she wore except to wash and even then, well, obviously it was the exact same thing.

Tonight, though, she wore a sleeveless leotard with form-fitting jeans and gloves that left her fingers exposed. It wasn't a severe change, but obvious at the same time and if one looked closely when she moved her head, one would catch a glimpse of red sparkle that came from the simple jeweled earrings she donned—the same red as the gem on her forehead.

The cape stayed as Raven had complete disregard for whatever ways it may or may not have gone with what she had changed into, but that was expected. No one mentioned it just as no one mentioned the irate state she continued to be in once they arrived at the club.

"What takes so long? If they're of age, let them in, if not then send them home," Raven growled. The line was not long...just long enough to give her another reason to be unhappy. She figured at this point she was coming off as a bit whiny but this was not her idea and she could not for the life of her understand what had possessed her to agree to come out tonight.

_You know_, a pink cape flapped at her, giggling.

_You shut up and no, I don't_, she told it flatly.

_You can't hide me away forever, Rae-Rae,_ it teased. Her inner true self twitched at repeat of the childish nickname given to her by the boy blunder and now coined by what she considered to be her most frivolous of sides.

_We'll see about that,_ she told the fluttering version of herself and brought herself back to what was going on again in the outside world...still waiting in the line apparently. She stifled another complaint but could not quite contain the grumble.

"Patience is a virtue," Robin whispered in her ear.

She jumped.

He laughed.

She glared.

"What makes you think I care about virtues anyway?" she retorted with an inordinate amount of sauciness before shoving her ID card at the bouncer and then icily storming past him. It should be noted that the bouncer had no intention of stopping the crazy, purple-eyed sorceress whether she was of age or not. She rather and completely terrified the man.

The titans felt a little bad for the bouncer. After all, it one didn't _live_ with Raven, one wouldn't know that she had no intention of killing them, even if her expression said otherwise.

Robin followed her volatile figure and the others trailed behind him at a decidedly measured ten paces back, wary still of Raven's next possible outburst.

Said girl found herself a seat at the bar with at least three seats between her and the next person, whoever that was and tried to get comfortable. She had come out, yes. She had changed clothes, yes. But she would absolutely under no circumstances...

"Hey sexy, dance with me," a confident voice said, and she was about to tell Robin to not test his limits beyond where they already dangerously teetered tonight when she realized something: the voice asking her to dance was not Robin's at all. She looked up, puzzled by a stranger coming on to her, much less practically ordering her to dance with him. His eyes were an unnamed color, perhaps too much of a mix to be any one of them, and his build was slender but muscular, evident through the fitted t-shirt. The hair that fell in wisps over his eyes was a sandy blond at best and probably more like the sand than the blond in normal light. She strained to figure if she knew this person.

"Don't call me that," she said finally and looked away, deciding she didn't know him.

"Come on. Take a chance, sexy," he flattered her brazenly with the repeated compliment and ignored her order, grabbing her hands to pull a sputtering Raven to the center of the lively club's dance floor.

"You have no idea who you're dealing with," she menaced him with her darkest glare of the day—which was saying something it should be realized—and continued to resist. He spun her out of his arms and back into them in a strange modernized version of a waltz that only worked with the industrial tech music blaring through the speakers by some strange grace of God or the stranger's undeniable skill.

Stubbornly, Raven was ready to believe in God first.

The music got to a point where she realized she'd been out there for more than five minutes and she finally relented, letting him lead, and her natural grace flowed through her steps as she matched him move for move. His voice reached her through the incessant beat of the catchy tune flooding the room.

"See, is this so bad?" he dipped her, a strong arm cradling the small of her back.

"I'm here," she stated blandly as ever and the stranger chuckled at her refusal to give him a straight answer.

Now remember, the stranger and the Raven had chosen the center of the room. Well, the stranger had chosen and the Raven had after a time, submitted. As such, their unusual style of dancing to the contemporary music had drawn attentions from not only surrounding patrons of the club, but the other members of her team as well.

Particularly a blue eyed one with a mask of white to cover said blueness. And Robin felt the beginnings of what X had awakened in him the other night: jealousy, possessiveness, and fear that someone else might snatch her away. It had all been rather akin to the cliché of fun and games when it started with their chess match; he had been under the impression that though it would take time to get to her, he could win her over eventually and this had been okay with him. Now, what with Red X and this...whoever he was, dancing with Raven so fluidly, he wasn't so certain that time was all he needed to claim her heart.

_Winner takes all_, Robin mused gently, watching as the admittedly attractive young man looped his arms about Raven and then twirled her out in three-quarter time that somehow managed to go with the fast-paced rave music that blasted around them. Pushing jealousy aside—or running with it, he wasn't certain which it was—Robin strode to the dancing pair.

"Mind if I cut in?" Robin tried to be polite.

The stranger did not hesitate with his answer.

"Actually, I do," he said.

"Sorry then, it's very important," Robin said in a voice that suggested he wasn't sorry at all to the blond man and with a grace learned from years of training of all kinds, he caught Raven's free hand, pulling her away in time with the song playing overhead.

"What was _that_?" Raven asked as Robin spun her inward.

"Protecting my interests," Robin replied smoothly. Raven did not respond to this but she did not retreat back to the bar either.

Not for the next song, or the next.

Not for the next five songs actually.

And the two might have continued all night together but for an innocent request.

"Friend Robin, would you join me in the next of the dances?" Starfire asked, glowing with the recent exercise of dancing around regardless of whether she had a partner or not—which she usually did, being so amiable. Robin paused but Raven pushed him into the alien's arms...well practically. It was more of a slight tap in her direction as if to indicate that he should, and therefore he would.

"Sure Star," he said uncertainly, glancing over his shoulder once before Star had him lost in another part of the moving crowd. Raven sighed. Earlier she had felt envious of Star's mere hand on his shoulder and now she was feeling guilty about everything that was so much more than a handhold that she, herself, had done with Robin and unhappily aware of Star's ignorance to it.

Her head pounded suddenly and not for the first time, she knew that she did not like or understand her recent rollercoaster of emotional fluctuation.

That on her mind, she stepped out of a side door of the club, letting the cool air of 3 AM settle around her. She sniffed curiously. Was that smoke?

"Hey sexy," someone greeted from her side and she recognized the blond man from earlier.

"My name is Raven," she deadpanned and eyed the cigarette that was lazily hanging out of the stranger's mouth with obvious distaste.

"Not much for smoke?" the stranger asked out of the unoccupied corner of his mouth.

"Not much for cancer," she clarified. He laughed at her and spit out the column of white, smothering it beneath the heel of his red sneakers. "Nice shoes," she said in a monotone that would have meant indifference coming from anyone else.

"Thanks, I think so too," he said conversationally and then, "Raven huh?"

"So?" she got the feeling he was insinuating there was something wrong with her name.

"So...is there a last name that goes with that?" the left side of his mouth quirked upward in a sort of crooked grin that, for some reason, only enhanced his good looks.

"Not for you to know," Raven said. He nodded his assent, to her surprise and to her relief. He wasn't going to press her for it, it seemed. Ten points.

"What brings you here?" he did keep trying to talk to her though. Minus twenty.

"_That_ is a bad line," she told him. He shrugged.

"Maybe so, but I'm a nosy guy. What brings you here?" he didn't even bother to try and rephrase it.

"Stubborn friends," she answered him after a moment's worth of deciding between that and something far more callous, directed specifically on pinning the whole night on a masked leader of hers.

"I see," he acknowledged her response and leaned against the brick wall of the building.

"Yourself?" she felt it only polite to inquire the same thing.

"Boredom," he paused, "And you."

Raven's head shot up from looking at the ground and she threw a probing stare at him.

"What? You don't even know me."

"I do," he countered.

"Then why ask me my name?" she challenged.

"I didn't ask. You offered," he corrected her.

If Raven hated anything as much as losing, it was being corrected by someone more stubborn than she was.

"I think I would remember a person so incurably egotistical," she said flippantly and then pretended to look at a watch she did not own. "Oh look at the time, I find myself remembering I have to wash my hair tonight," she drawled in a way that she hoped annoyed him and began to walk away. He followed.

"What about your friends?"

"They know the way home."

"Won't they be worried?"

"Why do you care?"

"I don't," he admitted.

"Leave me alone." It was not a request.

"This is no way to treat an old friend," he teased her, putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Hands off, stranger," she glowered, finally losing her cool.

"Whoa, simmer there doll face," he smirked and her glower dropped.

Oh, stupid, stupid, stupid! Her many selves fought with each other, particularly Wisdom wielding a 2 by 4 from goodness only knows where and Happy with what must have been a distant cousin to a candy cane—which was odd not because it resembled a confectionary, but because typically Happy didn't fight at all; it wasn't her style.

But her emotions were having a free for all now that she realized that knew that voice, though it wasn't distorted as usual...once she realized how well she knew that arrogant stance.

That absurdly cocky line.

"X!" she did not hesitate to throw a trashcan at him with her telepathic abilities. He dodged it, of course.

"Mm, not the warm welcome I'd hoped for but you know what they say about the best laid plans I'm sure," X grinned at her as he continued to evade her attacks, fueled by a reinvigorated upset.

"You dare to come near me after that show at the docks," she seethed.

"What?" his eyes flickered with puzzlement before they regained their conceited luster, "Oh I know, the kiss!" His fake forgetfulness only fueled her temper.

Oh and what a temper she had...

X ducked what looked like it might have once been a motorcycle, but one couldn't really tell after it hit the wall behind him.

"What's the matter, Raven," he asked and flipped behind her adding in a hushed timbre, "In denial?"

"Never," she spat and with surprising strength actually reached behind her and flipped him over, having him land to her satisfaction, on his back and very much on the ground.

"—more," he quipped audaciously, rolling out of the way as she sent the fire escape crashing down where he had just previously lain. There was a flurry of noise and the side door of the club burst open as Robin and the other titans rushed out. Taking that as his cue to disappear, X sped toward Raven and with a grunt grabbed her by the waist, shooting up onto the nearest roof, by way of a gadget that had Raven wondering where he hid the damn thing.

"Imbecile," she pushed away from him. He feigned hurt.

"Just wanted a more private goodbye," he said and added, "Besides, the mask was in our way last time, my new alterations to its ability to meld aside." With that he pressed his lips on hers, more forceful this time...more sensual...and warm, biting softly on her lower lip before he made himself stop just in time to see the titans reach the roof as well. "Until next time, sweet Raven!" he shouted and did what very possibly, he did best: jumped off the roof and disappeared.

He didn't see the hollow look that had captured Raven's face with his parting words.

_Sweet Raven._

Only one man had...one dragon...had ever called her that.

She shivered.

Unintentionally, Red X had brought back bad memories, old insecurities and fears for the empath and she found herself dropping to her knees.

Arms embraced her.

She collapsed into them, not caring whose they were but aware of the familiarity of the kind pressure they put upon her as they pulled her more into them. They were Robin's, but who else would dare? She was dimly sentient to his voice, but only just.

"Who was that? Was that the guy? Did he hurt you?" Robin asked both as urgently and as tenderly as possible. She nodded vacantly and Robin tried to search her mind as to what she was nodding to, only to find the thickest and most effective of her mental walls yet. "Raven, let me in. Please."

She either did not hear him or refused him, and he could not decide which hurt him more.

"Friend Raven?" Starfire reached out a hand tentatively and in a show of concerned affection, rubbed her hand in a comforting way on the empath's shoulder. Raven looked up at the action to see the wide green eyes look at her with distress, but did not, could not hear anything that was said to her, not even registering her own name.

"Rae?" from Robin again.

"Raven?" from an apprehensive Cyborg.

"Raven!" from a panicking Beast Boy who reached out to her only to have Robin shakes his head at him, halting his show of unconscious affection.

She was too far to hear any of them now.

Why had she let Robin talk her into this? Why had she come out tonight? Why did she wear different clothes? Why did she feel jealous of Starfire even when there was no reason as Robin himself had told her? Why did she try so hard to convince herself she did not want Robin's attention and then find herself wanting more? Why did X kiss her for the second time—to mock her?

Old memories brought anew, she would not put it past him, now blurring the actions of a man from her past with the ones in her present, unfairly if understandably.

Why, when she finally began to let herself believe she could allow Robin's feelings, why did X have to say her name that way?

All those questions starting with the most universally unanswerable of words:

Why?

_Sweet Raven._

She desired rage.

_Sweet Raven._

Or indifference.

_Sweet Raven._

Either would suffice.

_Sweet Raven._

But instead she felt her heart shatter again with the false endearment's echo. She saw what she had hoped never to see again: silver, almost white-blue eyes...saw a dragon she once saw as magnificent who, in turn, only saw her as a pawn...saw a beast who despite all his trickery had been the very first to make her feel beautiful instead of creepy, wanted instead of misunderstood and more than all of that: blessedly human.

She remembered Malchior, holding her like a lover...Malchior, disdaining her like a toy, and she saw herself opening up and then losing everything she had opened herself up to.

In one fell swoop, bitter with wings of black.

And suddenly she wanted nothing more than to go home.

Without warning, she disappeared into her soul self, leaving Robin's arms filled with nothing but air.

* * *

**Thank you for the reviews, friends. Hope this chapter suited. Let me know if you've got a moment. Sorry if it's a tad depressing at the end but I thought first love—from a personal standpoint—would only be a natural thing to have resurface for our beloved empath. That is after all where part of her strengthened fear comes from and keeps hindering her ability to accept Robin or even comprehend X. She remembers being used and as unjust or even unrelated as it seems for her to use that as an excuse to run away or keep defending herself from said advances, it's also very human—a thing she'll notice later, I promise. **

**Or a certain someone will help her notice.**

**Sound good?**

**In any case though, I understand this might be perceived as coming completely out of left field and I can only hope that this does not keep you from enjoying the story/ reading it. **

**(worried) **

**Let's see, ahead then: more drollness next time. You all deserve it after that silly and, yes, drama-driven twist my mind would not let me change. I apologize.**

**Though, I hope the bits of wit in this one were decent too, can't deny some of it I actually like, myself. **

**Is that a bad thing? Haha. Xx**

**Hehe. Face made of X's...**

**-Rei **

**Oh p.s. special thank you to **castle in the air** for critiquing this before I posted it. Helped a lot. Stupid typos. Watch, we'll have missed some anyway. Bah. Haha, anywho, thank you and as for everyone who doesn't know the name **castle in the air** ...go read the stories! Er, well, if you want. **

**Uh, I like them anyway. gives cookie to **castle in the air

**Okay, gotta go to work now, probably for the good of everyone else too—seems I'm rambling yet again. Oy.**


	7. Chapter 7: what do you do?

Thank you for waiting for this chapter. I am so sorry it has taken me longer than I would have liked but it was difficult for me to write this chapter, deciding what should be in it and what should wait until later, et cetera

Also just managing to give more depth here and there without going UTTERLY out of character is one of the most abhorrently tricky things to do, ever

:eyes roll I back of head as Rei falls over:

Um yes, anyway I apologize. Hope someone likes this chapter and I hope that even if it isn't your favorite, you stick around for the next one.  
For those worried after they read this chapter, well, at the end it should be obvious, but there WILL be more Raven and Robin to come. It's just taking some time in getting back to or beyond where the two birds were before...a rock and a hard place you know.

Such is love , right?

-Rei

p.s. Also, thank you—since both were one-shots and I've nowhere else to thank you therefore—to everyone who reviewed my two attempts at one-shots, even the sad one.

Diclaimer: don't own teen titans

* * *

**Winner Takes All**

**Chapter Seven: What Do You Do?**

* * *

The next outings comprised of sending Johnny Rancid to jail, the Hive members to jail, and someone else who was comparatively less memorable, to jail. These were all easy battles, won with minimal scrapes and bruises, if any, and it would have seemed nothing was awry except for the tense silence that shrouded the titans every time they returned to the tower. 

Since that night at the club, Raven had spoken to no one. She did not come out of her room for anything but a mission or assignment or whatever they were calling it these days.

Her tea mug was left untouched for a number of days that was unheard of.

It had the other four in worried states that varied from frantic, to sullen, to angry, to distressed, to other things that finally found themselves in an amalgamated form of each, shared between them. They paced and obsessed over stupid things to distract themselves, argued a lot more and snapped a lot more.

Each wondered what she did in her room, alone and so quiet. So silent.

It did not occur to them for a while that she was not in her room at all. That was an act of grace, if Raven knew of any.

Because she wasn't...in her room, that is.

Every day Raven Roth teleported from the tower to the roof near the club and sat. If anyone had chanced on the roof—not that many people took to hopping roofs, but it wasn't entirely ridiculous to consider the possibility in Jump—it would appear to him or her or them that Raven was meditating. Her lips formed the familiar mantra now and then, but it was more to maintain her patience.

She was waiting after all.

And it was for many days, almost two weeks that she waited, from sun up to well into the night, every day. It was a stroke of luck that Robin had a habit of contacting everyone on their communicators when there was trouble, since as loud as the T Tower's alarm was, she could not hear it from where she spent her days and most of her nights. Because the boy wonder did this, she was never found out, and she was able to wait alone, in peace.

Or what little she could manage.

Raven wasn't certain what made her think X would return, not certain why she came on her own entirely. She had her theories and her suspicions, but put little stock in them, since they were quite possibly well unfounded and clouded by her own emotional involvement.

But Raven was smart, very smart and plenty wise. So, it was with any luck that on the fourteenth night between eleven and midnight that a familiarly distorted voice ran into her ears. She did not even flinch, having been expecting it for so long, even wishing for it, if only to finish what she came to do.

"Hey doll," X had somehow situated himself on the roof at the other side, leaning casually against the ledge. _A precarious place for him_, Raven noted with no little amount of wryness.

"Care to tell me what you keep kissing me for?" she asked pointedly. Enough was enough. She had discerned that what he stirred in her was strictly primal and while good—_very good_, Lust snickered and Raven ignored it blithely—not substantial. How could it be? She didn't even know him beyond the mask and the lies and the thievery...and his origin of course.

"I like it," he responded flippantly. Her eyes narrowed.

"Well stop. It's a nuisance and I don't see what possessed you to let me understand who you were without your mask. Why are you even bothering to wear it right now anyway?" She was getting quickly annoyed.

Fourteen days and thirteen nights of waiting did that to a person though, half-demon part aside.

"It's really more for show. A lot of thieves have their faces plastered over millions of wanted sites and signs and ads but how many of them get caught?" He had a point.

"How many thieves have made rather square and complete enemies of the titans?" She threw out a point of her own, splitting his down the middle like a broken arrow.

"I guess that makes me special," he said and grinned behind the X mask.

"Especially obnoxious," Raven corrected him coolly. At that, X stood from his lounging position and approached her. Raven let her legs unfold underneath her from their previous lotus position and took a defensive stance as he neared.

"I have to tell you, sweet Raven, I don't take orders from anyone," and he went to make his actions on her thrice, but she was ready and waiting—of course—this time. Encasing him in black energy, she barely repressed a growl.

"Don't ever call me that," and she flung him to the far side of the roof once more, putting him in his place more or less. X rubbed the back of his head with some amount of regret for his boldness. That hurt, after all.

"What? 'Sweet Raven'? I thought it was a compliment," he half-joked, half-probed her for further information and while it seemed a careless act of curiosity, Raven recognized the question for what it really was: the beginning of more questions.

"You thought wrong. Now leave before I turn you in," she ordered. X could not stop his eyes from widening in surprise.

"What? You're just letting me go? Robin wouldn't like that," he made a tsk-tsk motion with his hand. Raven scowled.

"Well Robin isn't here and as you have yet to do anything notably illegal, I couldn't even if I wanted to," she replied too quickly, wanting to avoid more questions now that she had had her own answered. The interrogation was not to be flipped, but here he was, his skull mask throwing back word for word and she despised him all over again.

"So you don't _want_ to turn me in," X commented airily. She clenched her fists.

"Don't bet on it," she bit out.

"I'm not the betting kind, babe," he replied. "I just take what I want and run with it."

"You're unbelievably sure of yourself."

"I can't help it if I've always been able to do anything I put my mind to," X feigned some kind of innocence.

"_Anything_ you put your mind to?" Raven asked.

"Anything," he nodded arrogantly.

"Then get lost." To her chagrin, he laughed at her. To his surprise, she threw him against another side of the roof, drawing new bruises.

To their knowledge, they were the only ones out that night near the club, but this was not so. An uninvited pair of eyes scrutinized the pair from a neighboring rooftop, silent as the grave and just as fearsome.

The eyes watched the continued dialogue.

"_You_ should warn a guy," X all but scolded.

"_You_ should be so lucky that I didn't throw you _off_ the roof," Raven glared.

"That, might be true, however uncalled for," he said, nearly to himself more than to her. Her emotions flickered out unconsciously and bent a nearby lamppost to a waterslide reminiscent curve.

"Uncalled for!"

"Well, I kiss you because I like it, which infers that I like you, which should really make it alright," X reasoned with impossible simplicity. She grumbled something and then more audibly:

"Such a thing is only alright if it is consensual," she said icily. X seemed to consider something, arms crossed across his chest as he let go a sigh and turned to face her directly—of course, it was hard to tell with that mask on.

"If I was not a thief, if I asked your permission, would you grant me that then?" it was such a human question, so moral and so patient sounding that Raven was thrown for a loop. This was X, Red X—the common, if better, criminal, the stealer of many, many things, the masked young man possibly associated with Slade.

_Why feel sympathy for such a man?_

She cursed her existence as an empath and plowed on, headlong.

"Why? Considering giving up crime for a fling?" She wanted to sting him, to hurt him for confusing her so much, wanted some kind of exacting revenge. "Like I would believe that anyway," she forced her attitude to exude an unbroken edge.

That accomplished, she found herself biting her tongue with his next words with something along the lines of regret swirling in her ribcage.

"Not everything is so cut and dry, Raven," he said clearly and his voice lost its distortion half-way through the sentence as he removed his mask. "What do you do when all you have known is something that wasn't even your idea in the first place, something created for you and you happen to be good at it, very good at it, what then? What do you do when you're commissioned by high-flying criminals that circuit this little city here and face things worse than death by defying them with no one to protect you because to the heroes of this city, you are only another one of the bad guys? What do you do when you find yourself to be human and wanting human things from someone you think might understand you when you know it's impossible beyond a few fleeting touches and showing your true face only to disappear again?"

They were not elegant words. They were not nice things. They were hard and real and simple and primitive questions that surely philosophers could wrap their long fingered hands around and produce painstakingly logical answers to.

But Raven was wiser than those philosophers and whether she liked it or not, what the now unmasked man asked her clicked in her head like gears that matched just so.

"I don't know," she admitted.

"So, what if?" he asked again and she knew him to be human, more so than herself on so many levels, and she could not begrudge him an answer.

"People are people, beyond all other things. Even half-humans count," she let slip the first smile that was not a sneer at him or biting like winter wind and continued, "Everyone has a chance."

"That is very cryptic," X grumbled, walking closer to her, and this time she did not heave him mentally back to the other side of the roof. His hand did not reach out to frame her face, even if the twitch it made at his side indicated that it wanted to.

"I can only offer cryptic ones, because I am not sure of anything," she was honest in that and found she could understand some of what X seemed to infer he had been going through. They were, however she failed to get her mind around it, somewhat alike.

Minutes passed that added up to nearing a half hour of silence.

"I want to kiss you again," he said, breaking it. She took a step back.

"That would not be right," she warned. He arched a brow.

"So you are together," he stated with some remorse she knew he could hide with the distorting mask and was touched that he did not put it back on to do so. And he did not have to clarify who he meant when he said 'you' and 'together.' She knew.

Oh, how she knew.

"No," she said quietly. "I told him that too was unwise." X let out a soft laugh, not unkind or jeering though this time.

"Not everything in life can be wise or right or good, Raven. You and I are proof of that. Even Robin is proof of that. Don't you get it, sexy?" he brought it up with what he felt to be the best pet-name for her yet, just the right amount of friendliness mixed with forwardness.

"I'm not sexy and yes, I kind of get it, but it's late and I've been on this roof for nearly..." she looked at the moon and took a second to correct herself—ever a stickler for accuracy—and continued, "for a complete two weeks now."

X gave her a curious look.

"You waited that long? How did you even know I'd come here?" he asked and added, "And you _are_ sexy. Beast Boy thinks so. Aqua Lad thinks so. Robin thinks so. I think so. We win. It's man's area of expertise anyway." If she threw him a cynical look after that spiel, he deflected it with a small smirk of his own.

"I guessed," she said shortly, choosing to overlook his compliment and answer his question as if she didn't care.

Raven was very good at lying to herself.

"I'm flattered," he returned to his cocky attitude.

"You really, really shouldn't be. I needed answers. I did what I needed to, to get them, nothing more," she elucidated with clear pauses between clarifying and solid scowling.

Another silence, this one unmeasured as the moon moved slightly overhead, and clouds shielded its light, casting the two on the roof into a shadow within the night concealing them as the blond thief inched toward the empath, hand finally giving into cup her face...

"I am going to kiss you," he said simply, not asking her permission this time, and did so. The previously curved lamppost exploded and Raven gave him points for not laughing into the kiss.

The hidden eyes still watched them as dark bird and night thief entangled themselves.

Why she allowed it was a mixture of reasons, some concerning his earlier confession and others concerning the fact that this felt somehow safer than allowing Robin such accesses to her.

Not that she didn't want Robin. Not that she didn't love Robin.

She did both of those things, and that scared her less for herself as it did for him. What would become of him?

She could scarcely bring herself to imagine.

Robin was so close to her, bonded to her. Should they ever fall apart, she would fall apart not wholly because of the loss but because of the ordeal and he might very well be lost to the darkness she so naturally hailed from. She felt that to be wrong to chance, to risk, that surely he could have a more secured future in finding something with Starfire, as she had told him before, who could heal his darkness instead of accept it.

Sometimes, she reasoned for the millionth time in her head, refusing to let a part of a person live on, after all, was the only way to force a demon out, an inner one like the shadows that plagued Richard Grayson from that fateful day his parents died to this cold night when the girl he loved considered pushing him away forever.

Even though she loved him back, without a doubt.

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Not that he knew for sure, but even a good distance away, on the roof of the tower, Robin felt his heart begin to show cracks and he grew worried without knowing a definite reason as to why, but he felt a certain bond twist, causing him to lift a hand to lay across his chest where a heartbeat pulsed in rapid confusion.

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Back on the roof near the club, _Raven thought: the only way to heal Robin, for him to heal himself, is another path. Not one with me._

_Never_ with me.

That thought was bitter as bitter could be and she could not help but wonder briefly if she were tall and lovely, tanned with red hair and green eyes with all the hope of many worlds in her everyday nature, if she were all those things, if she might have had the Robin she denied herself now, as only Raven: petite if shapely, frigid if knowing, dishonestly controlled if reliable.

She knew her more winsome thoughts to be childish but stubbornly, she also thought her ideas concerning the protection of a certain boy wonder were decently founded.

And this is what she told herself as X explored her lips with his, hungrily and curiously, this is what she told herself as her heart protested and Love threw itself off various precipices in Nevermore and Intelligence groaned, hitting her head on things—oddly enough not very intelligent—and Bravery/Courage sulked.

For Raven was hiding.

She was hiding because she was terribly and equally fearful of what might be, and of what might not be, if she chose Robin.

It was for these reasons, however misguided and disillusioned, that she veiled herself in the strange and alluring mess known as Red X and it occurred to her that this was wrong on another level: had he not just shared with her something of real emotions?

_Am I only using him? _She had the logic to question.

Wisdom said it made sense in a strange way, X having stemmed from Robin's mind alone, but the others shot her such withering stares that even she quieted and subtly retreated into one of the many larger shadows of Raven's mind.

X traced her lips with his finger, wonderingly at her sudden permissive behavior.

"Care to explain why you _let_ me kiss you again?" he copied some of her earlier words and when she shook her head, he found he didn't care and brought his lips down to capture hers again.

And again and again.

"What do _you_ do when you can't allow yourself to love who you want?" She asked, her words breathy from lack of oxygen, laced with the allowance of Lust and other such emotions inside her. Since this seemed the appropriate time to both let X know of her honest feelings—not for him—and to ask a question equally as human and revealing as all of the ones he had asked her earlier, she had broken their primal duel for the query.

"You do what you have to," X said without hesitation and eliminated any other chance for such unguarded dialogue with another meeting of his lips and hers.

X, for all his words, was more aware of Raven's turmoil than she knew and as a result, aware of the now confirmed possibility that she was, however sloppily, redirecting her feelings for Robin toward him, and that therefore, they were not real.

Not for him anyway.

But again, that didn't matter, because a guy like X, a guy like him, lived in moments. It was all he could afford. So he continued to ravish her, both sick with and obsessed with this particular instant in time, not allowing it to come to an end, not wanting it to, because as all moments allude: it could be the last.

The two confused beings became so caught up in each other, more so than several minutes earlier, that they did not notice the new presence that joined them until he spoke.

"I should have guessed."

And it was this deadly whisper that made X and Raven spring apart like two children found stealing the cookies from the cookie jar. Eyes taking in the third member of the rooftop party, Raven's heart fell into her stomach and X retrieved his mask quickly, having turned away as soon as he knew someone else was there.

But through the disguise, newly placed back over his face, X glared darkly.

"So tell me, how long has this little intrigue been going on?" Slade's voice was the most unwelcome it had ever been and Raven, though with some hint of her old fear, was not about to answer him like the old friend he always made a pretense of being.

"That is none of your concern, Slade...but this is!" And she tried to throw him off the roof as she had threatened X earlier with, but found to her horror that nothing happened.

Nothing.

Well, Slade laughed.

But that was worse than nothing.

"You should learn some new techniques," Slade leered and then sprung into an attack. X intervened, sending Slade back the way he came, only to be hit square in the chest with the metal pole the villain wielded. "Shame you chose the wrong side, X. We made a most gratifying team," Slade kicked out and X barely evaded the steel of his boot.

"Azarath, metrion, zinth—" Raven was cut off by a metal hand clamping itself over her mouth. She went to teleport, only to appear on the ground, still with the bot attached to her, rather inconveniently and she cursed into its hold. She tried to slip out of its hold, force her way out even, to no avail and her eyes rolled back into her head as it crushed her, squeezing the ability to breathe away until her body went limp with unconsciousness.

"Raven!" From the rooftop, unconscious could have passed for lifeless and X leapt to get by Slade, showing outward concern for the first time since he could remember.

"We'll meet again," Slade all but promised and X was momentarily blinded as Slade hit him in the chest with something sharp and then threw five flashes of explosive gadgets in his general direction.

There was Slade's laughter...again.

There was silence...again.

And suddenly X could see again, rubbing his eyes furiously as he hurried to take off the mask, knowing more by the stillness of the air than the quiet that he was truly alone. He surveyed and then scoured the area just in case, and finding nothing he could only think of one thing to do.

Even though it might kill him to do it, if it would help save Raven, he had no other choice.

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Robin stood on the roof still, wind whipping around him loudly enough to remind him there was no one there to share the silence with, no comfortable and understanding empath beside him to appreciate the night. He was about to retire to the insides of the tower when he heard a thud behind him. Whirling, he came face to face with a familiar image.

"X!" and he wasted no time in attacking.

"Whoa, boy blunder, cool your jets," X managed to taunt even while gripping his side, dodging Robin's well-aimed blows with difficulty. The sharp sensation he had endured earlier had been Slade, leaving a large gash on his left side and X struggled to keep himself one step ahead of the young hero who was his arch-rival and also the only one he could think of to come to for help.

And he would be the last one to admit he needed help, but there were larger things at stake now than stolen computer chips and questionable artifacts.

There was Raven.

This was what he remembered as Robin sent a powerful roundhouse to X's chest, sending the thief reeling back against the door that led back into the tower and then, not relenting even for a second, threw him bodily back the other way only to skid off the edge of the tower.

Blindly he reached out a hand and managed to barely grasp the edge of the tower.

"Robin!" It was the first time X had used his name in a while and it shocked the boy wonder out of whatever livid stupor he had entered upon the sight of the skull mask. He did not lower his defenses but he halted in his attack and that was enough. X looked up at him, discerningly behind his own mask and let his other hand, previously holding in the lesion, reach up to grab the edge of the building as well. The lack of pressure caused him to flinch though.

This, Robin saw.

"You're injured. Who did that? I have to thank them." Robin quirked a brow as X had the gall to laugh emptily at his comment.

"Slade." The name was an effective ice breaker and it was as if neither boy noticed or cared to notice that one of them was dangling precariously over a bunch of jagged rocks about a hundred feet below.

"Why?" It was if nothing else, a simple question.

"He has Raven." It wasn't an answer, but it was more than that too. X watched Robin's mask expand with the effort of his eyes widening in what he was certain would be shock, anger, worry, and fear all rolled into one great huge mess of his irises.

"You delivered her to him," Robin accused and tried to understand even though his first guess was clearly way off, and he knew it.

"And that's why I'm here tonight. Thought I'd deliver myself on a silver platter while I'm at it," X replied sarcastically and tried to heave himself upward, but the injury had continued to let blood pool out and around his hand that clutched at it and the world heaved around him from the loss.

"You're a thief, a villain," Robin, Hell-bent on finding a reason to incarcerate this guy, anger and frustration from the most recent of events welling up in him as thunder played mute background to his upset.

"I—" X began to retort but his vision was getting unmistakably hazy with blood loss and exertion, and he felt as Robin with an expression as deadly as it was unreadable, watched as his hands slipped off the edge completely.

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Again, thank you for reading thus far and hopefully you'll come back for chapter eight. Please review if you have a second! 

And I request that no one leaves a comment that only details their hatred of Raven x Robin...because that's mean. I mean, Starfire and Robin fics are allowed, so why not Robin and Raven? It's only fair that there can be both. Please do not leave me 'flames' as to my choice of pairing. They are unkind words, as Starfire might say, and needless.

-rei, a little discouraged


	8. Chapter 8: here, and gone again

Thank you so much for waiting for this chapter! I apologize to those who were a little thrown or not in agreement with the last chapter, but hopefully eh, well eventually things will sort themselves out. Thank you for the reviews, which are always, always appreciated.

Teen titans is not mine, blahrgh.

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**Winner Takes All**

**Chapter Eight: here, and gone again**

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Cold, gloved hands grabbed his wrists as though vices and pulled him up bodily, dropping X as soon as he was a gruesome couple of inches on the right side of the ledge.

"Come on," Robin ordered and did not offer to help X but left the door to the tower open behind him as he stormed to the med room.

X followed.

"You believe me," X said, incredulous in spite of himself.

"I have to," Robin replied seamlessly. X cast a glance at him that would not be ignored and Robin repressed two strong urges—one, to sigh and rub his temples; two, to render X unconscious for the good remainder of the rescue mission formulating in his well-exercised brain. So resisting, he continued: "I lost the feeling of my bond with Raven an hour ago. What you tell me is all I have to go on, so even if it is a trap," and he paused here to eye X levelly to tell him exactly what would happen if it was, "All I can do is follow your word." If only by the tightening of the corner of the left side of his mouth, one could tell that the admission of said truth was nothing short of nauseating for the leader of the titans.

"Never thought I'd see the day," X could not help his default behavior, so engrained in his system: to taunt and get under the skin of his company, competition, or whatever.

"You might not yet," Robin growled and X maintained the quiet that ensued as the two entered the med lab and Robin tossed some gauze and disinfectant his way.

"Thanks," X offered what he figured would be his only show of gratitude to the bird boy ever.

"Not welcome," Robin was quick to say and then, "I'm going to get the titans up to speed. Move from this lab and I'll find another way to find Raven." His tone was cold and foreboding, insinuating that although his previous words inferred that X's aid would be helpful, it was by no means necessary if push came to shove.

X began to sterilize and bandage the slash in his side, and told himself to make it a point to make sure that push didn't come to shove.

None of them could afford it at this point.

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"Slade!" She had been calling out for the evil man for what was probably hours and still, nothing. Having woken up to a cheap and dirty room filled with boxes of broken bots and various clippings of titans, she did not have to guess as to where she was or who had taken her. Her only question left was: "Why?"

"You have something I want, dear child," Slade's voice intruded into her rhetorical state of mind and Raven scowled.

"Everyone has something you want, even the overlord of evil," she retorted to the hidden cameras she knew must be hidden in every nook of the room, every wayward corner of a box.

"You see, the problem with Robin," Slade went on as if he had not heard her, "Was that he could not be properly broken." A pause. "I think I've found a remedy for that little fissure in my plans." Another pause. "You see Raven, a King may operate without his Queen, but the Queen is the most powerful piece on the board. Without her, he may be easily captured...and then broken." Slade did not laugh, but Raven almost wished he would. His laugh would have given the moment that odd, almost cliché point of focus that would have made his threat and insinuated game play more idle, would have given Raven a frame of thought to pull back some clever and dark response.

But she had none.

Closing her eyes against the world, Raven did what she always did—whether she admitted it to herself or not—when she felt hopeless: she felt for her bond with Robin. The boy wonder was, among other things, the very beacon of hope the citizens of Jump and other such places looked to, why not her? She felt for it as if tracing the satin edges of an old blanket with stitches thrown in here and there to keep it from tearing apart at the center, felt for it like a blind woman seeking a safe place to set her foot on her daily trek to the supermarket, felt for it like a girl in love.

Which she was.

And when, having searched, Raven Roth could not locate nary an inkling that her bond with her leader even existed, she slowly opened her eyes and tilted them where she might see sky if there were not a ceiling in her way. She longed for flight, away from this dusty storage room, up into the endless black and blue of night and her soul-self, and she wondered.

She wondered if X had gotten away in one piece—she hoped he had—, she wondered if Robin was looking for her yet, if any of the titans were—she hadn't treated them very well lately but she did not doubt their steadfast compassion—, she wondered if there was any truth in what Slade had said.

Raven wondered and all the while, pondered an escape of any manageable sort.

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"Dude no!"

"Yes, friend Robin, is not this Red X an enemy of ours?"

"I gotta go with BB and Star, Robin. You have to explain the deal to us or we can't let you walk out of here with that guy while he's not in cuffs!"

Beast Boy, Starfire and Cyborg all voiced their objections and Robin shook his head at all of them.

"We have no choice," he bit out. Did they think he enjoyed admitting this any more than they did? Did they think he wouldn't do it without the damnable Red X if he thought he really could? Regardless of his susceptibly idle threat from before, finding Raven would take considerably longer without the thief's assistance and time was not something Robin ever felt he had enough of, especially where Slade was concerned. "Just grit your teeth and we'll get through this. We must find Rae—" he almost stopped there but caught himself just in time, "—ven. X is necessary, much as I hate it. And I know you do too."

"Filled them in have you?"

Speak of the devil.

X still had a swagger to his walk, newly bandaged sore aside, and his tone did nothing to assuage the stress and tension laying in foot-thick layers throughout the room.

"Don't get cocky, X-man. I've got my eyes on you," Cyborg glowered with his human and mechanical orbs. Starfire said nothing but took a step back, eyes glowing.

"If this is a trap..." Beast Boy could not finish, so angry as he was. X shrugged all threats off like rainwater on a tin roof.

"Whether or not you believe me is not my problem, kiddos. Your 'leader' believes me however, and maybe that will set your noses straight," X shot back, arrogant and impatient to be off. "If you're coming, then come. If not, I don't care. I came here for Robin's help, not yours."

That statement was a bafflement in itself. It was incredibly not Red X to say such a thing, for he had—however inadvertently—just conceded that he could not do this alone, that of all people he needed Robin. But if the other titans wondered at this, they said not a word as they followed the agile form of Red X across rooftops and through alleys they were certain didn't exist before this night and through extremely busy avenues where somehow, the teen superheroes were able to blend right in.

How that worked out, they didn't bother to ask.

They were only grateful.

_Raven_...Robin's thoughts focused so centrally on her that he hoped to reach beyond the break of their bond, hoped to find her, feel her life force, hear her voice in his mind to soothe the sharpness of everything that was real lately, real and no longer a game he cared to take part in, but by necessity knew he must win.

For him, for the titans, for Raven.

_Always_ for Raven, whether she liked it or not.

"You're an idiot," X's voice interrupted his thoughts as they nearly glided through the metropolitan night and Robin's eyes narrowed behind his mask.

"And you're a jerk, so?" he retorted coldly.

"So stop being an idiot," was all X said in reply and sprinted ahead. Robin bit his tongue to keep from the multitude of not-so-nice things he dearly wished to say to the inadvertent fruit of his labors.

"You're full of it," Robin jeered as they dropped an easy hundred feet from the top of one of the buildings into a darker than dark alley. X held out a hand.

"I think it might be near here," he whispered, the strange distortion making his voice even more abnormal than usual.

"Titans, split up," Robin ordered in the same hushed tones and they nodded before each disappeared in a separate direction. X folded his arms.

"This would be the perfect time for me to spring a trap on you, you know," he pointed out. Robin shrugged and arched a cynical brow at the thief.

"You're not working with Slade, you're working with me. Now, which way?" He was nothing if not blunt.

"Come on boy blunder," X fired one last barb before heading off at a pace that forced Robin to focus so as not to be too loud as they all but ran through an ever encroaching darkness. The water at the edges of the alley's buildings was murky but the lights hit it in a way that made it look like the odd pair was walking on it and the almost nonexistent lap of it at their booted heels was like the sound of isolated rain. "Here," and he pointed to a door Robin hated to know he would have passed twice before seeing, so almost perfectly meshed into the side of the decrepit structure.

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A cold white light opened onto Raven and she shielded her eyes instinctively only to have her wrist grabbed in a strange and familiarly unyielding way. She opened her eyes and while she was not surprised by who she saw, she would have been a fool to deny the seeping edges of fear that clouded her mind and made her chest feel heavy.

"Slade," she greeted with a less than hospitable glower and was proud of how emotionless she was able to remain.

"Raven," he returned and his voice was as though he was an appraiser of fine goods. Here he circled her, wrenching her wrist in such a painful way she thought it might break, but he released it before the sickening pop of a bone or joint could sound and she bit down the gasp of pained relief. "It will forever amaze me, the weakness of young minds," he said and when it looked as though Raven might interrupt, he came around full circle and held her chin harshly in his right hand, forcing her to keep her lips pressed firmly shut. "I am not so old as to not see what appeals to our dear Robin, but I am old enough to know how big a mistake it is of him to allow himself to these...appeals," Slade's inflection was that unnerving whisper that sent shivers down her spine and made her feel undeniably weak, even if she was obstinate not to show it.

"You've lost your mind Slade. I don't know what you're talking about," Raven bit out sharply. She knew she had to at least begin the persuasion that she meant nothing to the titans' leader, had to distract Slade from his original intent...somehow.

"And you have lost the game," he replied coldly and she felt that same shock from the say they first ran into him again, that same current that was not quite electrical but charged, not normal but excruciating and very much like fire. Her lips opened to let out a scream but she had been robbed of air, it seemed and it came out a choked gasp. "You have lost the game for your noble king," Slade dropped his voice lower, only a whisper into her right ear and her body was not beyond the unsuppressed shudder he caused.

"We...don't..."Raven struggled to speak, trying to grip onto her anger, her rage, if nothing else, to move through the inexplicably awful pain Slade caused as his grip increased and the strange shocks rolling through her intensified.

"Don't, that sounds about right," Slade murmured in false niceness he was well known for. "Don't bother, Raven. Robin would not bend before me. So he will be broken and once more you are just a tool, isn't that interesting?" And it was maybe this that helped pique her vexed upset.

"We...don't..." she gasped as one of Slade's hands left one of her wrists and wrapped around her throat; she didn't need a mirror to see that there would be burns the shape of his clenched fingers around her neck. "...we...don't...lose!" And she managed to rip herself away from him, and without his hands on her was able to use her power, heaving him unkindly against the adjacent wall. Then, careful not to tenderly assess the damage of her throat with her hand, knowing full well it would only aggravate it, she dragged herself up off the floor where she too had fallen. Her eyes took in the situation and noticed immediately that the door was open. She ran for it even as she heard Slade's footfalls catching up with her at an alarming speed.

"Nowhere to fly, pretty bird," his voice laughed after her and she ran all the faster but her vision was doing strange things and the burning sensation around her throat had not left and her heart was beating in unusual ways, too fast, too hard, too much.

Still, she was Raven, and she thought she might make it.

Metal gloved hands clasped her shoulders.

"Now, now. That wasn't very nice," Slade said and his voice was not a warning but a menacing hush.

"I'm not nice," she replied, her voice still thin from his previous attacks and she struggled to get away, wincing when his fingers dug into her skin like fangs. She waited for the hollow and wit-driven reply, the retort of cynical darkness, but instead she heard an oddly familiar voice, and it wasn't Slade's.

"RAVEN, GET DOWN!"

She refrained from telling the new voice that she couldn't and tried anyway, well in tune enough to feel what might be coming next.

The discs just missed her and nearly grazed Slade, but not quite. Still, it was enough. She was free again.

"RAVEN, GET OUT OF HERE!" that voice again...and then she knew.

"Robin?" She turned to face a strange sight. X and Robin stood side by side, each in his own defensive stance as Slade stood between them and her, seemingly assessing the situation. "X?"

"This is interesting, very interesting," Slade intoned and Raven's heart fell into her stomach. "I never thought you would deign to work with an enemy, Robin. I thought our little apprenticeship game had cleared that up at least, and him of all people?" Slade sneered in the quiet, deadly way a snake might. "I suppose you are too noble to be bothered by their involvement, am I right?"

"Whatever you're getting at Slade, it's not going to work," Robin glared, dark and not in the mood for these mind games. 'Involvement'?

"Ten kisses short as one, one long as twenty./ A summer's day will seem an hour but short/ Being wasted in such time-beguiling sport," Slade quipped Shakespeare, clearly enjoying himself and ignoring Robin's claim all at once.

"Get over yourself, buddy," X growled and launched himself at Slade who dodged as easily as he might have dodged a turtle.

"Maybe it is you who needs to get over a certain dark-eyed sorceress," Slade replied airily and Robin could not repress the questioning look that swept from the thief to his fellow teammate. She returned the gaze with a pleading one of her own, one that said: not now, please. Slade grunted as X delivered a strong kick to his chest, dropping to one knee, but used the leverage to flip the thief in the other direction against the adjacent wall. "And Robin, it seems you know nothing of the situation at all." Amusement was clear in the villain's voice now.

"Whatever you have to say Slade, it's of no interest to me," Robin said coldly and made a come-and-get-it gesture. Slade shrugged nonchalantly.

"Precious Robin, really, your stubbornness is no less than I'd expect. However, it is of great interest to me that you would allow a fellow titan to become the lover of one of the most renowned thieves in the city," Slade remarked blithely and Robin's blood went cold.

"What?"

"Interested now, are you?" Slade taunted and Robin lunged at him. Slade chuckled.

"Start making some sense!" Robin swung at him with his bo-staff. Slade ducked and the weave he worked through Robin's slew of attacks was the kind of graceful that was infuriating.

"Don't listen to him Robin!" X warned, knowing full-well where Slade was going with his catty remarks, pulling himself up off the ground with some difficulty.

"But I'm nothing if not honest," Slade all but cooed in that singularly sinister way that made Raven's heart freeze. "And what makes you think he'd listen to you sooner than me?" Slade had a point here and when Robin looked like he might ask what X categorized as another stupid question, the thief intervened and sent a spinning kick to Slade's right side, sending him careening away.

"Well, for starters, I'm better looking," X said tartly to the floored villain as Slade regained his footing to square off with the skull-masked foe. "Get her away, kid," X all but ordered Robin, who went rigid at the tone.

"I thought you didn't like playing the big hero." He used words he had used before through sheer stubbornness and knowledge of what X said to do was what had to be done, and Hell if he was going to trust X be the one to get Raven away safely—after all, this could still be a trap. His paranoia was constant, if nothing else it seemed. X, give him credit, tossed a cocky and old response back as Robin through his arm around Raven to support her and turned to go.

"That doesn't mean I don't know how," X grinned behind his mask and just barely dodged a swift kick in the ribs from Slade who was growing more and more agitated with every turn. "Get out of here kid. You bother me!" X hollered after the fleeing pair as he continued to do his best to stall his previous co-worker. He wasn't a stupid thief after all. He knew his strengths and that hand to hand was not one of them really, knew all he could really do was in fact, stall.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to do what he could, trying.

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"Raven?" Robin felt her weight collapse slightly. Her breathing was shallow at best and the burns on her skin were worrying him.

"I'm fine, just...need a second," she had a hard time with words, throat still feeling terribly constricted.

"This way," Robin urged her on. "Just a bit more, here," he pulled her into the shadows of a hall, not quite out of the lair yet. "What did he do to you?" His voice was sad, and to Raven's confusion, angry. Angry? "I'm sorry I couldn't stop him." Ah.

"No one could," it seemed a day for old words. She tried to smile at him.

"Is what he said true?" So he hadn't forgotten after all. Raven sighed and pressed her eyes shut.

"Yes and no. We are not lovers, but I was with X when Slade..."she trailed off, not needing to finish. Robin was smart after all. He could put pieces together. He was known for it in fact.

"Why Rae?" He asked. It was not an angry question though, or a bitter one. It was a perplexed one, tinged with melancholy.

"I've told you Robin; I've nothing to offer you, even if we were together, what good could come of it? It would only hurt Star and it's not like it would last anyway," Raven paused and said, "This is not the time for this." Robin took her hands in his, firmly but not unkindly.

"Then when Raven? Over another friendly game of chess? I want to finish this game and if when we're running our legs off to get you away from a crazed, murdering, psychotic arch nemesis is the only chance I've got to get through to you without you running away from me, I'm not letting it slip by me!" His grip had become closer now and his masked face was no more than an inch from hers. "It's your move Rae. It's been your move. What are you going to do? There's no backtracking allowed. You've been breaking all sorts of rules. I just want to know who's left standing when this is all over, understand?" He had not spoken so much like this, without the witty banter, without the easy laughter to build walls or keep bridges between them, without allowing her all the space she claimed to need. And it touched her. It broke her heart to think of telling him no again.

She didn't have time to answer though. A blast sounded, followed by X's body soaring past the opening in which the two birds hid, and they heard his body land with a hollow thud, the sickening kind that a limp body made. Squaring her shoulders, Raven hurried to get between Slade and X. Robin followed quickly.

"Thought I told you two to scram," X joked, relentless with his silliness even though one could tell he was in no state for joking, his body riddled with gashes and a few burns.

"I don't take orders," Raven muttered under her breath and realizing that without Slade's contact she could use her powers, she threw up a protective wall just as Slade lunged at the trio. "Thank you, X. You can go...and... I'm sorry," she didn't say why but he knew. It was evident in the quiet way Robin had laid his hand on Raven's shoulder as she thrust the shielding barrier up, the way his taller frame slightly angled to cradle her own, lest she collapse from her own injuries. It was clear. And it wasn't like he hadn't known it anyway.

As was stated, X lived in moments. He knew this one, at least for him, had past, and like all the others, he would let it go because that was how he operated, much as he himself didn't like it sometimes. Of course he might have stayed, fought for the dark girl's affections, persuaded her over. It was not impossible, after all. But again, that was not his way. So, after gingerly pulling himself to his feet for what he was almost certain must have been the fiftieth time that night alone, he leaned over Raven's shoulder—the one opposite the one that had Robin's hand on it.

"No harm done, sexy," and he kissed her one last time, and it would have been a chaste thing if X was capable of chaste, but he wasn't really. It was a soft, sensual farewell, a thanks, and a take care, and everything else that wasn't in his profile description to say. It was, for Robin's sake or hers, or no one's but fate's, on the cheek, however and X padded away in a quiet haste.

Raven felt he was far too forgiving to be a criminal and might have frowned in question at that, except that her powers were greatly weakened from all the exertion before and she was beginning to feel the world heave around her in dizzying ways. She swayed; the barrier flickered; Slade had stopped after his first lunge, simply waiting as he knew she could not hold it up forever. He was a patient villain.

"Let it go Raven, the others are coming," Robin whispered and pointed subtly at the tracker he always carried with him. An almost imperceptible nod and the shield flickered away. Slade stepped forward.

"Just two then, is it?" Slade smirked and Robin glared—it was quite possibly the only expression the boy wonder was capable of having in the enemy's presence.

"Two is plenty," Raven's voice echoed Robin's feelings and they both attacked. The other titans soon joined, as Robin had promised, and star bolts flew as Slade worked to evade and attack all at once. Cyborg occasionally got a shot in but was wary because of the questionable state of the building and the closeness at which some of the titans were fighting the man. Beast Boy did his best to attack in between the moments when Robin and Raven were not—which were not many, but enough.

And then, no one was quite certain how it happened, Slade had Robin. This had been his goal, but no one ever expected him to achieve it. Still, there he was, with Robin struggling in his grasp. The titans didn't need to see behind the mask to see the smile beneath it.

"One bird for another, a fair trade I think," Slade began to back off. Raven panicked. She had not panicked in years.

Years.

But this was Slade and this was Robin. This was Slade taking Robin to God only knew where, to do only God knew what with...no. She couldn't let him.

"Release him!" She practically flew at him; she did.

"I don't think so. Robin and I have a lot to talk about," Slade mused thoughtfully.

"If you have a lot to talk about, talk to yourself!" Raven scorned and then called, "Star, the right!" And the Tameranian heard her friend, sending several well charged bolts to Slade's unprotected side, causing him to release Robin. Unfortunately one of the bolts had hit a renegade beam and the building began to shake. Robin's eyes widened behind his mask.

"Get out titans! Now!" He grabbed Raven's hand and began to run, on the heels of the other titans. They seemed to be in an upper level of the lair or warehouse or whatever it was.

"Yo Rob, got a window here. It's enough!" Cyborg alerted him before jumping out. Starfire followed, and then Beast Boy who shouted for Robin and Raven to hurry up if they could. Parts of the ceiling were coming down in chunks now.

"No!" Slade's outraged voice rushed upon the birds unasked as he hurdled into the room, on a direct course for them.

"Hurry," Raven urged this time and they had almost made it to the window and away from Slade when a beam came down and, not being able to move in time, hit Robin. "Robin!" she dove to catch him as he fell from where they had been climbing, a series of boxes to reach the window that was somewhat higher up. She hadn't been strong enough to carry them both up or teleport them, still weak from the cuts and burns, but fear for his life renewed some of what was lost and she was just able to sweep below him before he hit the ground, mere feet from the unforgiving concrete. She struggled with the dead weight of his body, even as Slade approached and the building continued to collapse.

"A pity," Slade drawled. Raven glowered.

"Go to Hell."

"Shall I wait for you?" he asked coolly and Raven flinched.

"Azarath, metrion, zinthos!" she choked out, as the falling rubble's dust got into her lungs and she summoned what she knew could be the last of her strength to teleport Robin and herself out of the quickly crumbling structure.

The last thing she heard was her name being called, but by who, she could not be sure.

* * *

Again thank you and review if you have time please, if not, I still am grateful you have taken time to read some or all of this fic thus far. It was the first of the four I have now, two in progress, so I'm rather attached to it, even if it isn't the best or anything like it...ya know. Um, yay teen titans?

Gonna go watch 'birthmark' now, because I feel like it! Whoo.

-rei


	9. Chapter 9:love is a dream you enter

Thank you to all the reviewers, very much.

Teen Titans is not mine.

Chapter Nine is...muahahaha...er...yeah...sorry about that...minor burst of insanity...touch of madness...er...okay. I'm quiet now...

-rei, no sleep for 58 hours and counting! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!

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**Winner Takes All**

**Chapter Nine: "Love is a dream you enter..."**

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She was falling up.

And it was not cold, but it was not warm either. She wondered if this was Purgatory, as Dante might refer to it and then proceeded to wonder where all the cookie-cutter trees were, where the winding path up the endless mountain lay, and decided this was not Purgatory after all.

It was Hell.

Again, she could not feel but she was not only restricted in her emotions but her physical awareness as well; everything was cut off from her and she could swear the beat of her heart was nothing short of begrudging. It mocked her, keeping her alive enough to not finish the journey, dead enough to not go back.

And she knew she was probably dying, knew that she, Raven Roth, would probably never open her eyes again. Stubborn to a fault though, she gripped life by the frayed edges it presented her with, and clung like a kitten on a new scratch post, flexing her clawed grip to better it, to remind life she was not to be put off so easily.

It wasn't like she was precisely human or even mortal after all.

She did her best to remember the last events: a crumbling building, Slade, her friends, Robin...Robin. Had she gotten them out? Was he going through what she was? Did he survive? Last she had seen, he was out cold...she hoped he was alive, was still there to be the leader...was still the same boy and man she had denied herself even now, even in near-death. Raven Roth hoped that underneath that damnable mask he was still the man Richard Grayson could one day be proud of being without hiding his eyes, without hiding himself.

Maybe she could feel after all. A couple very slight trickles of salty warmth made her aware of tears and she did not bring a hand to stop them. Here she was more alone than anywhere else; there was no one to see, no boy wonder to unknowingly force her to hide them because she feared the warmth in his embrace and the fragility of the emotions within her. So she cried and it was not a sob or a whimper, but it shook her frame and showed every crack in her soul that she had mastered in camouflaging in life. It made her so disparagingly transparent, so intensely tragic and humble, made her what she already was, but everything as afresh and so it might have seemed something completely new to an onlooker, if there was one, but of course there wasn't.

The calm was gone. Here was honesty, sad and indefinite, real and foolishly hopeful.

She blamed or attributed the hope to Robin, the honesty to Red X, the indefinite to every villain like or unalike to Slade, and the sad part she distributed fairly to each part of herself, the storm that would not break until fatality threatened her. She asked herself why she had led herself in circles around her leader, thought back to the days they had been just two and the tower had been so comfortably empty except for the two birds, realizing she would not change the coming of the others for a second regardless of that comfort left behind.

Without them she would never have been able to move forward, to turn back her father, to be stalwart when everything else seemed beyond repair, even if she did it in a seemingly emotionless way.

"Thank you," she could not even hear her voice but she was just barely aware of her lips shaping the whispers.

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"What did she say?" Beast Boy all but leapt up. Robin held up a silencing hand and the changeling calmed noticeably.

"She said..." Robin trailed off because he didn't want to think of how final it had sounded.

"Friend?" Starfire asked, eyed dim and heart heavy as she looked at a sight she knew she would never get used to, never be able to hide from or block out: a friend on the edge and with nothing to be done but pray or hope or something like it. She turned her gaze to the floor when Robin did not answer.

"Robin, man, what did she say?" And maybe it was the big brother in Cyborg that guilt-tripped the brooding Robin to answer them directly.

"She said 'thank you'," Robin's voice was as much of a whisper as Raven's had been and the med lab was too sterile to be comforting, too filled with all the things that when it got down to it, could not save someone from where Raven had gone. The heart monitor was erratic at best and flat lines were off and on which really should not have been possible but they all remembered Raven's heritage and did not question the chance for resuscitation.

T_hank you? Is that all Raven? Is this the end of the game?_ He wanted her to wake up. He wanted an answer in the form of objects flying everywhere and windows breaking into a countless number of shards as he crushed her to him and promised to never let her get away from him again. She had saved him of course, instead of herself, she had saved him, put him first, and for all her words of protest, for all her insistence about it not working, had shown him in her actions how she felt...not that she would remember, even if she did wake up...

"_RAVEN!" _

_The telepath collapsed onto the unconscious Robin's chest, frail looking and deathly, not in paleness or stillness, but deathly in ways unexplained, and that made it more fearsome. _

_But wait._

_She stirred and seemed by tooth and nail to pull herself up off of Robin who in turn, stirred as well. _

"_Rae?" his throat was dry and his voice cracked. He didn't care. She was looking at him more truly than she ever had, but the truth was frightening; she looked like she was saying something horrible without even opening her mouth before she did...looked like she was saying..._

_...goodbye?_

"_I d-don't...I can't...I can't leave without," her eyes became shaded, she began to lose focus and he managed to sit up with some pain and touch her face very, very gently, fearing she might disappear before his very eyes. _

"_Rae, don't talk like that. Come on, you're immortal," he half-joked, voice thick with something other than dryness, something like despair. He was right, but only partially; they all knew Raven would eventually stop aging, around twenty five or so maybe, and hence, would be immortal...so long as nothing stopped her, no outside force._

"_...I'm sorry Richard," his name was quieter than he could have ever imagined and she closed her eyes with a sharp inhale, the loudest sound she'd made in the entire time; it sounded like pain. "I..." her breathing was shallow, quick...broken. Her frame collapsed onto his slightly, but he held her up. "I...guess...we...I guess..." she stopped and Robin thought she might not continue but here it was, what he had asked for, been waiting for, hoping for, pleading and even aiming for: "I guess..." it was a sad smile, "...we really can't pick who we fall for…you know, Richard. I always thought I might...that we...someday..." He shook his head._

"_We can and we will," he said fiercely. He had to be fierce. It kept him from being devastated. Her face leaned nearer to his, whether from her inability to keep herself upright or desire to be closer, he did not know._

"_No, but that doesn't mean..." a pause. "That doesn't mean..." a beat. "…that doesn't mean I won't love you forever." And her head rested against his in a way that would have been endearing if it were in the back of a movie theater during a matinee, or on a carnival ride at night, or even back in the tower in the home of the common area or the rooftop. She rested against him like a girl alive and in love._

"_Raven?" he asked quietly. "Raven?" more urgently he pulled back from her, holding her shoulders gently and watched her head loll forward, eyes closed. "Rae!" It was a shout this time, a cry._

_But the girl in his arms did not answer._

_And maybe it had only been her own consciousness calling to his, to keep him awake, keep him conscious, because almost as soon as her eyes closed softly, Robin felt himself being forcibly dragged into darkness as he felt something shift, but even the shift could not keep him conscious. _

That was all he remembered but it was enough.

She loved him.

And now it seemed like she was dying.

_Yet again, you retreat_, he thought darkly...despondently. How could she give it and then take it back like that? Did she even know what she was saying? Was she raving? Had she even meant it?

Stupid questions begot stupid answers like: _you know the truth so shut up_, and _what the Hell are you talking about, wake up, of course she meant it_, and so on.

Robin massaged his temples with unnecessary pressure. He glanced at the clock. Time was going on 3:30 in the morning and he was the only one left in the med lab.

He removed his mask, something he had only ever down, would only ever do, in her presence. If she died he would die; he knew that much. The titans would break apart for one reason or another and he would visit her, separated by five eternities of afterlife and five feet of newly turned soil. There would never be another Robin the paper, but a darker vigilante by the alias of Nightwing and he would visit her too, forever dissatisfied with her epitaph since no words could do the sorceress any justice that he could see.

If she died...the end would truly come and he did not know how to deal with the end yet. As sleep claimed him, he hoped beyond all other reason that by some twist of miraculous divinity or chance or fortune he would not have to deal with it, hoped she would live and more than that: hoped she would live, and still love him.

It was only after he fell into a dormant state that the familiar glow of healing surrounded the empath but it changed...it warped...it wrapped around her like two great black wings...and she disappeared from the medical bed without a sound, without even meaning to.

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The soul self of a Raven changed into the limp body of the half-repaired girl as she pulled herself to the surface of consciousness.

"What?" With some difficulty she propped herself up on her elbows and was startled when arms helped her to do so and then a back was pressed against hers, offering her support to lean on, as though she was sitting up on her own, even though she wasn't. There was a breath of a pause and then she recognized the rooftop, the music from the nearby club... "And I thought I'd seen the last of you," she tried to force a laugh. It did not come though. The warm back against hers transmitted a shrug.

"Expect the unexpected. Imagine my surprise when you show up unconscious on the roof just as I'm getting ready to go ahead and lift a very precious artifact from the museum on Fifth and Parker," he managed a laugh to replace her absent one.

"I used you," she said and she felt another shrug.

"'Love is a dream you enter...'" he began to quote.

"...though I shake, and shake, and shake you…" she finished softly. Iron and Wine were a quiet sort of music. She never would have guessed X might like their music...

"Yeah well, I knew you were, so don't get all pitying on me. I hate that," X said brusquely and this time she did laugh.

"I think I knew you knew."

"Well, you are an empath," he rolled his eyes like she might and added, "We'd get sick of each other after a while anyway. I can only take so much seriousness you know." Raven arched an eyebrow he could not see but he knew she was doing it.

"I surmised as much," she replied, amused in spite of herself.

"So why are you here? Aren't you supposed to be healing yourself?" X asked, serious now, for all his talk about not wanting to be.

"I don't know. My subconscious brought me here, I guess. I think I felt our engagement was...incomplete. We were distracted in your first departure..." she trailed off. He sighed and she felt it more than heard it as his back heaved slightly.

"I saw you both appear, called to you, but..." he paused.

"That was you?"

She felt him nod and he recounted for her what Robin would not remember—for better or for worse—and what she had not known, when she said nothing else...

_The two birds lay still for only a moment before the source of the voice that had shouted Raven's name when the two first teleported into sight came dashing forward._

_X._

_He had not left when she told him to. Just because he was letting go of that didn't mean he was going to just walk away. Whether anyone chose to acknowledge it, or maybe more importantly, whether or not he himself chose to acknowledge it, he was not a bad person, not even a villain, only a thief with a penchant for things that were not his. A criminal perhaps, but by some standards even on the scale of things that he stole things, he was not quite so bad. So it was that he ran to them, ran to her._

_X went to the fallen girl and carefully disentangled her from the equally comatose Robin, who was quickly taken into custody by Starfire who eyed X with continued suspicion. The other titans were no less skeptical of his intentions, it seemed as he gave them a once-over. _

"_I'll carry her to the tower for you and leave," X said shortly and no one wanted to waste time arguing._

_X traveled apart from the other titans, which was odd because it seemed strange to him that they would let their other fallen comrade into his care without a chaperone, but he did not question it. The thief found his alone time with the sorceress, however unconscious she might have been, to be necessary. So, he talked to her like she was awake._

"_You and Robin, you're too competitive," X remarked airily, knowing the hypocrisy of his statement and as usual, not really caring. Raven cradled protectively in his arms, he bounded across the rooftops toward the bay where the tower was, glancing down at her still form occasionally—these occasions were of course, when he wasn't bounding. "The more you back away, the more he'll pursue. Too much work for me, gotta say, but suits the boy blunder alright," X continued making one-sided conversation. He reached the edge of the roof of the building nearest the bay and eyed the T Tower with some reserve and paused. He let out a sigh and sat, swinging his legs over the building's edge, dark girl still in his arms. Thoughtfully he swept some stray hair behind her ear. "You're not just sexy, you're beautiful, you know? Not like Starfire, she's pretty and infectious. You're more...mysterious," he paused and grinned behind his mask, "and creepy." Here he wanted her to wake and smack him, but she didn't and after taking a moment to realize she wouldn't, X sighed again. "I hate being thoughtful, takes too much time, you waste a lot of your life thinking, you know Raven. I bet you waste more of your time thinking than anyone else. Maybe you should just live a little, huh?" He let a few more idle minutes go by and reasserting his hold on Raven, stood and brought her the rest of the way to the tower. The other titans—save Robin who was still unconscious—were waiting._

"_Where've you been all this time?" Cyborg asked coldly. Starfire glared deeply and Beast Boy had taken a step toward him. X gave a hollow, short laugh._

"_Just saying good-bye," he admitted candidly and took a few closing steps toward Beast Boy who received the limp form of Raven with equal care and a sad look that betrayed his deepest worry. "She's alive." That was the last thing X said before sprinting away. _

"Thanks," she said thoughtfully and X made a sound that was something like a short and quick exhale of amusement and derision all in one.

"Think they're worried enough about you yet?" X reminded her that none of her friends would know where she had gone or why or how and her eyes widened a little. He must have sensed this because he laughed. She scowled.

"Stop that. They might be looking for me. I have to go," she went to stand and gave a startled cry when her legs would not hold her up.

"Yeah, those probably don't work right now, nice as they are," X said as he turned and she scowled more deeply at him. "What?" he asked innocently, and added, "They are nice legs."

"Be safe, X," she shook her head at him and as she disappeared into her soul self, conscious this time, the thief heard her last words to him for years to come:

"I hope you find someone who will be more than permanently temporary for you. Beyond that, you have me, should you need me. You know where to come looking."

"That I do," he said to the nothing of the night and disappeared from the rooftop less than two seconds later.

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But Raven did not go back to the tower. She returned to the destroyed building and searched the rest of the night and throughout the day into the next night. That made it a night and a day, nearly two nights and a day now that she had gone missing from the tower, but she could not be bothered by that with her task at hand...Her frantic looking was like that of her leader's, she knew, but she could not help it. Slade had almost taken him, gotten away...she had to know if he was buried here to rest or had, as usual, slipped out. As the next evening turned into the small morning hours with winking stars and heedless moonlight, she knelt in the rubble.

There was nothing, no sign of him, no Slade. He had gone again. She cursed and with apprehensions at an all time high, teleported back to the tower, in front of it.

Maybe she should just leave?

No. They deserved better than that.

He deserved better than that. Steeling herself, she entered as silent as she might, which was completely excepting the sweep of her cloak.

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Beast Boy had fallen asleep around 3 in the morning, slung over the side of the couch, exhausted. Starfire had soon followed in reluctant slumber at about 4:15 and Cyborg had crashed at 5, falling asleep in a sitting position at the counter.

Robin had not slept. He thought about going to find her, but to what ends he was not certain because he had no idea where she might have gone. For some reason he had thought she would come here, back home. Of course he had checked for her signal on the scanners but there was nothing and this worried him further, and when he went back to the med lab to try and find any trace of a struggle or anything remotely hostile, he found nothing. The only possible thing he could think of was that Raven had left by choice.

She had gone and not told one of them, no one. Somehow that hurt Robin worse than the injuries he'd sustained in their most recent battle, went far deeper and his gaze was dark. If she did not want to be found, Raven of all people could make sure she wouldn't be, he knew. Still...why did she persist in disappearing from them...from him?

Why?

His thoughts were interrupted as an electrical swish indicated the opening of the front door. He turned tired eyes to empty ones as Raven levitated past him, headed for her room without a word, and he realized with sudden frustration that she had no intentions of speaking to him.

That would not do.

He followed her and almost dared to suspect she didn't register his presence, but as she entered her room she made the door slide shut so quickly, she could have had no other intent than keeping someone out, keeping him out. Tapping in the code to unlock her room from the outside, Robin braced himself for the fury that he expected would be unleashed upon him for not only going into her room, but after a very clear order to stay out.

"Raven, what happened?" he asked. It was a deceptively simple question.

"I locked my door for a reason Robin." She walked to the far corner of her room and crossed her arms, back still facing him. He sighed.

"Just talk to me, Rae," he implored of her and crossed the empty space between them, heedless of whatever volatile feelings were flinging themselves around inside the empath. His hand rested itself on her shoulder. She flinched.

"There's nothing to tell. I didn't keep my emotions in check, nothing more and I teleported from my subconscious." The lie, regardless of the laced truth inside of it, was faulty on so many accounts that it spoke for itself, telling Robin that she was not only upset, but hurt, not only angry, but fearful.

"Stop that," he said and pulled her into his arms, not unlike how he had done before. "Open your mind at least...let me see through your eyes," he used her words.

To his disappointment, her spine still went rigid when he enclosed her. To his combined self-loathing and unsettlement, he caught her scent and felt it permeate him like something better than oxygen. To his surprise, he found his lips pressing themselves against her right temple. She struggled to push him away, but he would not relent.

"Robin, stop. Stop now. I don't need this again," her words were whispers that told of the newly remembered past and the untold future.

"I am not deceiving you," Robin breathed into her ear, his warmth tickling her nape as he lowered his mouth to it. Her involuntary sigh was one of want and refusal all at once.

"How do I know? Just because you can make me feel does not make you any different from Malchior or X, doesn't—" she knew she was babbling but the strangeness of being scared was alien to her and she did not know how to cope with it. Things, words, spilled out of her as though a combination of Timid and Sadness had taken over and she felt like a child with no sense of anything.

For better or for worse, her leader took that pause to interject.

"You've been on defense for so long you forgot how to move forward on the board, Rae," he spoke in those pretty analogies he seemed to have an affinity for and she wanted to interrupt but had nothing to say. So, he continued, "You're not even willing to believe—no, to accept that I am different. That Red X was temporary at best, may be true, I don't know. That Malchior was a bastard and got what he deserves is also true. But I am not either of them," he did his best to keep from shouting now, frustrated and impatient. "Do you even remember what you said to me when you got us out of there? When you saved us?"

She shook her head at him.

"You told me..." he trailed off, uncertain for a moment but then more strongly, "You said, 'that doesn't mean I won't love you forever,' you said that!"

"I..." she could not deny it.

"Rae, just this once let me win," Robin alluded to a game much more frivolous than the one they were playing now, but referred to the one at hand. She ignored him blithely, blinded by some fears now newly come to her from not being able to find the villain in the dust of the building hours before.

"Robin, Slade was using me to get to you, you know that right?" Her voice was even quieter now, if possible.

"I know," he nodded, some of his upset subsiding.

"I can't let this be; I don't want people to be able to use me as a vulnerable point for you, you don't need that burden. And I..." she looked away. "I can't stand the thought of what could happen...to you."

Here was the real reason now. Robin sighed. He knew her feelings as well as if they were his own; for they once had been.

"Rae, as a group we titans risk that every day," Robin said with renewed gentleness and Raven furrowed her brow slightly. It was odd to suppose she had not thought of this before herself. Of course he was right. Still...

"But Robin," she shook her head. "Slade is still out there. I couldn't find him, in the remains of the building, or anywhere, I—" She stopped short as he pushed her firmly against the wall.

"You went looking for him? By yourself! Raven..." his voice was horrified, angered, shocked..."Raven...Raven...Rae..." he repeated her name like a haunted mantra and some fury was there now, with the desire and the vexed pauses and tired heartache, and anger was the match to for the fire of what he said next. "Stupid! You're not stupid but that was stupid! I can't believe you would..." he shook his head in incredulity and kept going, "Never do that again...Rae have you ever considered that what you're trying to protect me from is how I feel every day you're on this team, fighting next to us, next to me?" His grip still pinned her to the wall and his face drew nearer to hers. She closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry," her whisper was sad and her apology was for so much more than going to look after a psychopath villain by herself. Robin felt it through their bond more than he heard it and he was grateful for that. He had noticed its return earlier in the med lab, but hadn't had time to really concentrate before Raven had, yet again, disappeared.

A sigh, a pause...

"You asked how you would know I'm different, even with our bond, even with what we have done for each other and what we've been through. You asked." It was a statement. Raven tried to accept his words and reject his closeness all in one, nodding and moving to push away from him.

"I asked that," she conceded, thinking he wanted her to say it aloud, and let her eyes melt with his with one upward glance. She suspected both of them of not breathing before he said:

"Then let me show you." Without waiting for the yes or no he had tried to be patient for, without giving her the chance to retreat like very other time, without a thought to looking back on what was, he kissed her.

Their lips had met before, passionate, hard and wanting.

But this was even more so. It was the kind of lust that had to spawn from and within love first, the kind of bodily need that cried for another person, but only _one_ other person. Raven's first instinct was to resist; Robin anticipated this and, refusing her order for release, only crushed her to him more until slowly, achingly, his want began to open her own. He had thrown barriers to the ground, caution to the winds and all manner of other clichés that had to do with division out the window, wanting to let his own emotions run rampant, even if Raven could not.

"Robin..."

He felt her first moan and it sent a tremor through his mouth and down his spine, and he wondered what it would be like to hear more. They had managed to tangle themselves up in each other while just standing there and now, yearning to extract more from her lips, to feel more of her against most of him, Robin maneuvered her with ease against the wall.

The bed was off limits. He knew the dangers of it, knew even if he did get her to fall back onto the wide softness of it that the spell would break and she would teleport away, or worse: just walk.

Not now though, not tonight...or this morning, whenever it was. He couldn't care less for the time though as in propping Raven against the wall, he felt her instinctively push against him. His groan was deep and said things that words could not in a moment like that, just letting his lips speak for themselves as they latched onto a sensitive spot of her neck, sucking to a point of making her breath go ragged.

It was a good thing her normal leotard's neckline would cover that area.

Raven couldn't catch her breath, couldn't think, couldn't stop, and she knew that was what Robin wanted. He wanted her to lose control, she could feel it as his one hand laid languid strokes up and down her right side and the other hand let its fingers twist in her disheveled hair. A gasp escaped her as his mouth traveled dangerously lower and she arched into every sensation he elicited from her.

"Robin, stop," her voice was admirably unbroken, even between breathy moans and it shook him out of the fixation he had on claiming her long enough to look up at her.

"Why? I want to know who wins this game." It was a growl from the back of this throat, husky and demanding and he tugged on the hem of her jeans. Again, she wondered where he had learned all this. "We're called the 'teen' titans, Rae. Before I came to Jump I was your average teenage boy and even when I got here I had a lot of time to...learn things in between fighting crime solo," he clicked his tongue at her, amused. When she threw a skeptical glance down at him he shrugged. "Okay, not your average teenage boy and some things are newer learned than others but," he paused and brought his lips to the side of her neck, attending to it in a way that made her head loll back, "Are you complaining?"

He teased her.

"I am not different because of virtues or the hero-spiel alone, Rae. I'm different because I want you and I love you and I will not let this end in a stalemate between me and your forced indifference, your self-imposed distance," he both warned and declared in a single breath. She wondered at his ability to be eloquent and secondly wondered at her ability to hear him coherently through the waves of pleasure he was inciting in her...but some knowledge was so true it couldn't help but be heard in thend.

He loved her.

Such words should have been beyond her registry but she found to her surprise, they made every inch of sense that any other motion did: not much, but enough.

"You're a fool," she replied, meaning every word of her own, but not dissuading his.

"Maybe," he admitted and with more softness than she thought him capable of at that moment, he stopped in his fiery ministrations and traced her jaw very gently. "But I'm your fool, you know."

And she did know. He had been there, all along, from the very beginning. From the day they began this ragtag team to the day they stood on the brink of now, he had been there. Arrogant and sometimes obsessive, handsomely steadfast and hopeful...always so hopeful, he had done everything a person could ever dream or dare to do for a half-demon predisposed to destroy his world. He had accepted her, cared for her, protected her, and yes, yelled at her when she needed it, cautioned her...loved her.

"I don't understand you at all," she finally said and initiated the first move she had in the heated past ten minutes, letting her lips divine themselves on his and seek entrance, which he quickly yielded to her. He barely repressed a heavenward exclamation of 'finally!' as her fingers trailed his body, memorizing the tone of his muscles and the width and breadth of him through tactile means. After that, there was no more protest, because it was she, Raven taking him on this time. In a few painfully necessary words, the tables had been reversed and the amethyst eyes let the blue ones that faced her know what strategy she was onto now: offense.

And while they would go no further than dueling tongues and blind hands that searched for curves and hips, no further than the occasional sharp intake or exhale of breath that sent the other reeling for more, while they each wordlessly agreed to keep the wall as their only prop, bed carefully avoided, it was more than all of that and more than anything else would have been for each of them in that moment. It was what they would chalk up to weeks of sexual and emotional frustration let go, weeks of it that were probably more like years for the latter since emotions ran high all the time, whether or not they allowed them to show.

It was intimate. It was honest. It was game, set, and match, even if that very phrase was the most either of them knew about tennis—irrelevant really, because it was chess they'd been playing when this all started—, even if they had no idea of the trials ahead—or worse, every idea—, even if they would argue forever about who actually won—neither would give into the other on this subject.

For the moment though, the birds were so taken with each other, such thoughts were far from their minds.

They didn't notice the raucous morning argument of tofu or not tofu from way, way down the hall. They didn't notice a glass on Raven's bedside table explode when Robin somehow managed to have her pinned under his arms down on the floor, trying to get even closer to the beautiful empath, if possible. They didn't notice the dawn breaking, aching to meet the light as it streamed through the window and brought both souls into the morning; it was like bringing someone drowning to the surface for air. And while it was the first time their love would face the hours where night could not hide or shield them, could not offer escape, it was by no means, the last.

Robin held Raven. Raven held Robin.

Whatever.

They were beyond all other things, together...

"I," he began, breath uneven and she kissed him fully, cutting his words short before breathing her response into his ear in a way that shivered down his spine. He took that moment to inhale everything that made her scent so appealing, above all that on a primal level, she smelled as though she actually belonged to him, as though she were meant for no one else. He would not allow her to after all. So enraptured with her, he almost missed her words that said what needed to be said, without saying it as others might.

"So do I...forever." Her voice was a prism in reverse, stunning and unexplored. "Forever," she repeated more tenderly than he could ever remember her speaking to anyone.

"Promise?" he didn't mind how childish he sounded, not with her.

"I do," she smiled into their next embrace, a delicate and mysterious and rarity of smiles, an open one.

It was duly noted by Robin as Raven took control, managing to flip him so that he was beneath her and so it was his pleasure being voiced, that that was a more likely promise made by her than if it was made by anyone else.

* * *

More? I was going to write some more for this, but I am not sure if I should. Hm. I was thinking along the lines of another chapter or two, or an epilogue, or both. Sigh. Not sure. The epilogue would probably tie up some loose ends for how Starfire reacted in the end/ felt and the result, and/or Red X—but then the epilogue would have to take place years later...er, whatever. I'm thinking too much here.

Review if you have time as always, thank you!

And thank you to everyone who has reviewed with me thus far. I truly appreciate it. I've said it before and I'll say it again: no one has ever really liked my work before I showed up here. This place has really been a fantastically nurturing spot for me and motivated me to continue my usual writings which, although they are not fanfictions, are always similarly styled.

Thank you, very, very much, with all my aspiration-to-be-a-writer's soul,

-Rei


	10. Epilogue: Rush

**HUGE AMOUNTS OF FANTASTIC TASTING ICE CREAM AND/OR CAKE and of course, THANKS **to those who have reviewed and read or read and reviewed or even just read. I really am grateful. It's good motivation and makes me smile when I think all I've got to come home to is more work and instead I see some 'review' e-mails in my otherwise spam-ified inbox. THANK YOU SO!

Teen Titans doesn't belong to me because...I don't know why. But I know it doesn't. Damn it.

* * *

**Winner Takes All**

**Epilogue: Rush**

* * *

They'd decided from the beginning that it wouldn't be smart to try and hide from their comrades. They'd decided it would be best to just be straightforward. If anything, the team would appreciate their honesty. If anything, they would be happy for them.

Right.

As might be expected, neither Raven, nor Robin was shortsighted enough to really buy into any of those idealistic thoughts concerning how their feelings for each other would be received for more than a maximum of five minutes and they put their heads together to try and figure the most painless and also the kindest way to go about letting the others know.

Raven was sensitive to Beast Boy, who after the Terra incident—however long ago it might have been—had relatively returned to indirectly expressing some interest in her. Robin was sensitive to Starfire who had nursed affections for him since nearly the beginning. Raven was concerned about Cyborg's feelings since although he was often coined as the big brother of the group, she knew him to be lonely often and felt her relationship with Robin might bring that into unnecessary focus for the bionic young man. Robin was concerned about Cyborg in precisely _because_ of the big brother tag that applied often more specifically to his relationship with the dark girl and his over-protectiveness of her.

There was, needless to say, quite a bit to be both sensitive to and concerned about. So, the two birds agreed on keeping quiet for a while, a week, no more.

A week turned into two weeks, turned into three, became a month, ran into two months...and nothing was said. When there was trouble the team would go out and take care of business as usual and if Raven was a little more in tune to when she ought to throw a protective shell of black energy around her leader when he might not have needed it at all, no one really gave much notice. When the morning war of tofu versus real eggs commenced Starfire continued to try and play peacemaker and if Robin worked around them to get the kettle steaming and ready for the soon emerging sorceress, no one really gave much notice. Not much anyway.

And they were careful, very careful. Seldom were they even seen in each other's company that much more than was usual. Raven still sat by herself on the couch buried in her latest thick read and Robin still frequented his research lab more than any other part of the tower, save maybe the training room—also by himself. But sometimes...sometimes Starfire was out at the mall of shopping and Beast Boy was off looking for new video games and Cyborg went out to either take the T-Car for a spin with its new add-ons or get 'real food' as he would pseudo-delicately put it.

Those times, during the beginning months, were pockets of intensity for the masked leader and quiet empath. It was then that he would join her on the sofa and listen as she read him verses about he could only guess what, but enjoyed nonetheless because it was her voice speaking them to him. It was then that she would spar with him, having taken personal offense when on one particular outing Beast Boy made a tactless joke about her physical fighting incapability—he didn't mean any harm, it should noted. He never did, but Raven being Raven had to take it to heart and then train to, more importantly, prove him wrong.

And during the poetry-laden sits in the living area or the heated sparring matches, sometimes amethyst eyes would meet blue ones for longer than intended. That was when the pages of the book rustled as the tome fell from her hand as he crawled almost catlike to rest over her and cause her to lose herself in something other than fine words, or just to lose herself. That was when the sounds of kicks or punches in the training room suddenly halted as she triumphantly pinned him beneath her in a newly mastered technique and then, realizing their position and their proximity, realizing the tenderness in the way he traced fingers down her shoulder and arm, began a new kind of duel—one of seeking lips and hot breath.

Then the others would return; sometimes the timing was too close for comfort. But they were never caught. Maybe it was because they were never caught that they argued so intensely about telling them at all.

"We have to!" Raven crossed her arms, annoyed and defiant and Robin scowled to match hers.

"We've been doing fine until now. What's changed?" He did not fancy confronting Starfire and while it was no little known fact to him that he was being somewhat unfair about the whole thing, the idea of an angry—or worse, a depressed—Starfire quelled that self-loathing smartly. At least a little bit anyway.

"You're uneasy too, just look. You're tapping your foot," Raven inclined her head. Robin s hook his head.

"So? Sometimes...it falls asleep," he said lamely but made a point to stop tapping his foot; such dead giveaways were the reasons he never won an argument.

"Liar...when you tap your foot you're nervous or unsettled," Raven smiled, amused now and her companion shrugged with something of a sheepish grin on his face.

"Maybe," he said and she laughed softly at him. Robin marveled. The first time he had heard her laugh like that, he hadn't been able to place the sound; it had been in the quiet time of their paired solitude. It was apparently a rather humorous part of her book and she'd let slip some expression. Since then he'd taken to reveling in the sound; it was infectious but quiet, vaguely mysterious, as if she were always laughing at you in a I-know-something-you-don't-know kind of way. She wasn't, well not always, but it wasn't an offensive thing in any case.

In fact, Robin felt it was quite possibly one of the most delightful sounds he'd ever heard and it was these new things about her he was slowly coming to discover to be his most favorite. He had fancied he knew her well before they began this relationship, only to discover he'd been quite mistaken; there was far too much to know about a person you loved after all. There was everything.

"So when do we tell them?" she asked and he sighed. He wanted escape for once, but she would have none of it, it seemed.

"Today?" he suggested and her eyes widened visibly.

"Turning on a dime, I see," she noted and he waved his hand dismissively.

"If it has to be done, sooner is better and we've waited pretty long as it is." Robin admitted his own hypocrisy there, but he didn't mind so much, not with her anyway.

"I told you so," Raven said, unabashed.

"Don't get conceited," he admonished teasingly. She threw him a 'and what makes you think you can tell me what to do?' look. "Or I'll have to take you down a peg," he warned, but he was still smiling as he advanced upon her. She retreated. It was his turn to laugh. "We both know I'll catch you sooner or later, Rae," he said even as she disappeared through the floor.

Her laughter threw itself at him in a mocking fashion and with somewhat of a feral grin, he sprinted out the door of the training room—they'd been meaning to spar, but had started to talk instead. Down the halls of the tower, through the kitchen and the common room, the research area, his room and hers he ran and when he still could not locate his fellow bird, he rolled his eyes at himself. Of course...she would have gone the only place he wouldn't think to look. It was far too obvious and thus, the perfect hiding spot.

A record-breaking 15.3 seconds later he threw the door to the tower's roof open and was greeted with a highly amused smile.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," he said in a pretense of sulkiness.

"Me? I haven't said a word," she said with all the innocence of a newborn and he chuckled.

"But you were going to," he pointed out and she shook her head.

"Nope," she insisted and stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

"Careful with that tongue," he teased. In what seemed to be one swift and fluid motion—though it couldn't scientifically, possibly have been—Raven closed the distance between them, stood on her toes and brought him down for a breathless kiss; it wasn't even a duel for dominance. She had the upper hand from start to finish, at which point she broke apart from him out of necessity for air and short of breath, she still managed a somewhat gasping retort.

"Why? Afraid?" she taunted now and he returned her challenge with a falsely considering expression.

"Mmm...well I'm not exactly sure if I have anything to be afraid of...better to do some reconnaissance and find out for myself, I think." And he whirled her around so that she was against the wall. Absently, he closed the tower's door with his left hand even as his right tilted her chin up for another kiss, even deeper, even longer, even better than the last...well, maybe he was biased. He did want to win after all. Soon his lips traveled to pay special attention to the base of her throat, a spot he'd noticed in recent such 'reconnaissance' that was of particular pleasure for her. The arousing moan of approval more than confirmed this and he smiled against the softness of her skin. He was winning. And he might have continued to elicit similar sounds of delight from his dark lover if not for...

"WE'VE GOT PIZZA!"

His motions halted and Raven's previously closed eyes shot open as she all but shoved him off of her, paranoid.

"Paranoid?" he asked her from his new residing place—the floor. She offered him an apologetic shrug.

"Uh, no?" she quirked and after assessing that Cyborg's voice was just very loud and that no one was actually out there on the tower finding them out, she helped her leader back up onto his feet.

"Right," he said wryly, matching some of her lighter sarcasm's degree. "So, want to tell them now?" She paused, considered, and nodded. He sighed. "Alright then," he made for the door but paused as he looked at her again. "You might want to readjust your cloak...and your belt, by the way," he whispered, lips barely brushing her earlobe and it was only thanks to years of emotion-masking and meditation that Raven Roth restrained a very, very fierce blush from knitting itself across her delicate cheekbones.

Downstairs, well, in the common area, Beast Boy was fiddling with the boom-box's volume and the pizza boxes were open on the counter. (Cyborg and Starfire were hastily searching for earplugs while eating their slices of pizza.) The two birds exchanged looks. Now or never was the basic phrase they decided to focus on.

"Um, guys?" Robin coughed politely—not that that had ever gotten their attention before, but the polite ways were usually best when dealing with touchy situations—and when that, of course, failed to alert the others, he was about to speak again when...

"Hey," Raven said. They all stopped what they were doing and turned.

Robin scowled. Just because she rarely talked to all of them as a group, she got an immediate reaction. It wasn't his fault he was leader and as such had to give somewhat corny—or really corny—pep talks or go get 'em speeches and the like, wasn't his fault he was as such, often tuned out when it could be done without being too pervasive. Mentally, he sulked...just a little. But he paid attention when one of them asked what was going on and he squared his shoulders. Straightforward and to the point, that's how this had to be done.

"Well..." he began and it petered off there. Raven let her eyes wander sideways in a half-perplexed, half-exasperated question mark as if to say 'What the heck are you doing? Do I have to tell them all by myself?' He returned her look with his own one and it was indignant at her presumption but she simply rolled her eyes at him so he tried again. "You see," he began instead and thought, there, that was better. He suspected the resident goth of hearing that thought, because almost instantly following it, Raven gave a short cough that might have been a cover for laughter...laughter directed rather pointedly at him. Of course he couldn't be too sure and did his best to ignore the amused glint in her eyes as she watched him try to explain him and her to the others.

"What is it, friend Robin? Is something wrong? Do you have the stomach of aching?" Starfire misread his uncomfortable expression for indigestion, it seemed. Raven sent him a wry affirmation through their bond: well, she's right. You do look it. Now he turned to directly glare at her and this drew the others' interest more intently. "Friends?"

"Yo, dudes," Beast Boy started and at a rather penetrating glower from Raven he amended, "Er, dude Robin and...uh...hi Raven...?" He laughed nervously and hurried on, "What's with the awkward silences? Who died?" he joked.

"Well, actually—" Raven said and was then cut off.

"No way! Someone really died? Who? Oh man, oh man, I didn't mean—mph!" Cyborg clamped a hand over the changeling's mouth and put him in a harmless, if effective, chokehold.

"Can it man," Cyborg waved the green one into silence as he changed back to his normal form and perched on the back of the couch—Beast Boy had previously morphed into a snake and slithered out of Cyborg's grasp. Raven offered the bionic man a grateful smile before trying again.

"No Beast Boy, no one died. What I was going to say is—" But she couldn't. Someone else interrupted her.

"We'rekindoftogetherherandIerherandmeuhImean…yeah!" It was Robin's voice, definitely, but the breakneck speed at which he spoke was more like Starfire's way of speech when she got really, really jazzed about something. With pointed slowness, the empath turned to eye her leader speculatively and a little bit annoyed.

"Way to go, boy wonder." She threw her hands up in the air and began to walk away, at which point Robin gave the three other titans—whose jaws had dropped, having understood every word of what should have been incoherent—a disarming smile before shooting after Raven's retreating form. Beast Boy looked up at Cyborg.

"Did you just hear what I think I heard?" he asked, eyebrow quirked with intense skepticism.

"I mean I figured maybe, but...geez," Cyborg muttered to himself, more thoughtful than anything else.

"Star?" Beast Boy gently laid a hand on the Tameranian's shoulder; she had not spoken, only stared sadly at the floor. "You alright?" Cyborg also directed his attention to the friendly alien girl, his own features mirroring some of the loneliness he knew she must be feeling. And he felt bad about that. He felt bad because he already knew what it was like to go through what Starfire must now be going through and knew it was in no way an enviable plight to be in. The big brother in him soon moved him to kindly mess the top of Starfire's hair up playfully.

"Cheer up Star. It gets easier with time, no lie," Cyborg smiled down at her. She did not look up, but she did respond.

"Truly it does?" her question was very quiet. Beast Boy brought his hand from her shoulder to Starfire's hand and held it with all kindness.

"Definitely," he said and he didn't need to mention Terra for his two present comrades to remember he too knew what he was talking about, for all his joking manner and such. He had suffered a similar pain of the heart and it was no secret he had small feelings probably for the purple-haired sorceress, so this was mostly another blow to his psyche as well, if smaller.

"I trust you are right," Starfire said finally and even though she had tears in her eyes when she smiled at both of them, the thing about Starfire was that almost 99.9 of the time, the girl was positively genuine. Her smile was for many things: for the hope that her two friends who comforted her now, for the hope that all three of them might find that special someone to share happiness with, for the fact that she had these two and the others to rely on and call friends...for even, the other two's happiness as well, though it hurt her on some level.

It was real and it is not unlikely that it is this exact kind of resilience that made Starfire such an indispensable and adored member of the titans. She was steadfast, beyond all things—even her jealousy, which after the prom and kitten escapade had been made quite evident, was monumental—and she was loyal. So if her own feelings for her leader were not to be returned, while she could not honestly say she was overjoyed at the result, or with his choice, she also could not find it in her nature to interfere.

And she could have made him love her; she knew that as much as the next person; it wasn't a matter of unable or able. A person's heart, if taken by one, does not mean it can no longer be swayed. In fact, it is often quite the opposite for then the forbidden, that which is no longer available to you, becomes that much more enticing. No, it was definitely not because she couldn't do it.

It wasn't that. She wasn't blind to that possibility in the least and it took a great deal of moral strength on her part to throw that option into the fire.

But she was wise, for all her silly antics and Tameranian ignorance—growing to be less and less each day now—and her wisdom was such that it told her to leave well enough alone, to leave doors open, and to keep also an open heart. Then maybe she could truly say she was happy for Robin—her first love, if unrequited—and Raven—her friend and often, confidant. Maybe someday.

She would wait for someday.

"You want to go to the mall, Star? I got the T-car juiced up and ready to go, some new additions too," Cyborg offered genially and she shook her head gently.

"No thank you, friend Cyborg. But I am grateful to you and friend Beast Boy," she inclined her head as she often did toward the changeling and said, "For your kindness, and I am very glad to be on this team. I will be in my room should you be in need of my assistance." And she flew in a graceful, unhurried manner to her room from whence the two remaining titans soon heard the equally soft swish of her door opening and closing behind her.

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"Think she'll be okay?" Robin asked, concerned for the redhead a few halls over and doors down.

"In time," Raven replied honestly. "I'm glad it didn't seem to upset Beast Boy or Cyborg, even now I can't really feel any disapproval coming from them."

"And Star?" he probed and it took him a moment to recognize the guarded look that fell over his lover. When he did see it for what it was, he took her hand in his and softly kissed the palm of it. "I am worried about her. I do care for her. And none of that is anything like I feel for you." He paused. "Better?" The guarded veil faltered and then reduced itself to ashes at his words, replaced by a softer expression of vulnerability and love—the two often went hand in hand.

"I know this, but I forget," she tried to explain. He squeezed her hand.

"So do I, and I hope you remind me I haven't got a thing to be worried about, well not really anyway, when I forget too," he grinned and she batted his hand away in playfulness as she regained her confidence and decided now was a good time to goad him a bit. It was always more than a little bit fun.

"But really, that was brilliant," Raven said, now referring to his obviously mangled admission to the group, and making blatant mockery of him. Robin clicked his tongue irritably.

"You had something better planned?" he challenged. She gave him a look. "Fine, fine, I know. But I got the feeling that maybe if we didn't say it right away, you know, really right away, that something might distract us or keep us from it and you yourself said we had to say something!" This was all said in a rush, though not so much a rush as his confession ten minutes earlier to the rest of the team. Running her fingers through her hair absently, Raven shrugged nonchalantly.

"I know. I didn't say you didn't do what we we're supposed to. I just...commented on the technique," she decided upon and smirked.

"Yeah, yeah," he muttered.

"Stop sulking," she said and turned away from him to look out the window; they were in her room and the sun was doing that setting thing it tended to do every day around 6:21 p.m. and the gold-red glow it cast across the room was almost magical...almost.

"I'll do what I want," he half-joked, half-proclaimed as the sun fell further down in the sky.

"Clearly," she parried and half-smiled as she suddenly found his arms looped around her waist. A pause in which two heart beats synchronized themselves passed, and another, andthen another before she asked in a half-whisper. "And what is it you want?" Dusk was upon them.

"Isn't it obvious?" he returned her question for question as he brought his lips to just barely brushing her own, his hot breath mingling with hers. When she drew his lower lip in between hers and suckled on it, making a 'nn-nn' sound as if to say she didn't think it was obvious at all, he suppressed a groan and drew away from her a few crucial inches, just enough to say, "I want it all." And after taking in her knowing smile, he let her draw him back down then to see if he really deserved it. The moon reflected in crystal beams now, night having finally drawn in on the pair, but they were so engrossed with each other that they hardly took any notice.

They were caught up in another kind of rush, the kind with rapid heartbeats and loving whispers, sensual affection and primal desire, the kind of rush that left them with no sense of up nor down, much less the state the moon was in or the light that it shed. But there would be many more nights to notice the moonlight together, and that would be, beyond all other things, more than enough.

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Long author's note, apologies, but hey, it's the epilogue. What did you expect? Brevity? Psh.

YAY, EPILOGUE. Heh. Let me know what you thought. I tried my best. I don't think Starfire would be the same jealous type with Raven as say, Kitten...ew. She is a kind person and a good-hearted character and not two-dimensional as to treat a friend the same as an enemy, regardless of circumstances. I thought about mentioning X, but again, that would've had to be an epilogue taking place a few years later and since this was not years later, it seemed out of place for them to know since my last time actually stated it would be 'years' before Raven saw X again. Haha, TRYING for some continuity...how novel. **Anyway, thank you so, so, so VERY much for all the encouraging reviews. I really appreciate them. ALL of them, every single one and also, thank you for all the input and helpful criticism.** I tried to do better with everything—well, almost everything—mentioned. (Some were stylistic choices or plot choices however, and so, sometimes I did not adhere so strictly to those suggestions, because I am biased with my own ideas...apologies.)

I've more ideas for a couple new stories, Robin and Raven or a triangle but since I've already got a somewhat disputed triangle going on in my other chaptered story, maybe I'll just focus on the birds again. The one idea is kind of an intense rewrite of Beauty and the Beast (I've been taken with an almost obsessive fascination with roses lately, you see.) There would not be a 'beast' per say, but rather more like a shade/ghost probably—Raven—or, more strangely perhaps, just a cursed man—Robin—depending on who I decided to thrust into which role. It could be done either way, frankly, I think. Of course that would make it AU and I KNOW how many people despise them...not that that's ever stopped me from doing something I wanted to before...haha…people despising things I want to write. Psh.

"I'll do what I want!" THAT'S RIGHT ROBIN! …er sorry. Let me know though if you're interested in more. I'll finish the other story of course, but it's a more complicated one than I thought I was tackling at the beginning and it's much harder for me to write, so more slowly it is coming. In the meanwhile, another story would be fun to start.

Thoughts?

-Rei, **grateful for all the support **and ready to finally start on that pesky homework that's been staring at her from the ground for about five hours now—where she threw it five hours ago, of course

P.S. Special thank you to **castle in the air** for putting up with my rambling about writer's block. You're the one who told me I should write fanfiction if I liked teen titans so much, so I did, and I am really, really glad you have started too. I admire your writing a lot and am thrilled to notice your stories are getting some more of the attentions I felt they should have had from the start. Thanks, dear.


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